Revised 4-4-0

[robertjohndavis]

Hi,

I am intrigued by the announcement for a revised 4-4-0. Are there any details you can share about the new tooling? In terms of appearance will we see slightly different locomotive or just a new version of the old one?

Hopefully these will sell well and you will find a business opportunity to be more adventurous in road names. Some northeastern road names appropriate to the late 1800's would be great.

All the best,

Rob Davis

[richg]

Hi,

I am intrigued by the announcement for a revised 4-4-0. Are there any detail you can share about the new tooling? In terms of appearance will we see slightly different locomotive or just a new version of the old one?

Hopefully these will sell well and you will find a business opportunity to be more adventurous in road names. Some northeastern road names appropriate to the late 1800's would great.

All the best,

Rob Davis

And put the air pump on the engineers side. Locos in the 1800's had the air pump on that side. I have many pictures with 1800's locos and the air pumps are on the right side.
That would require complete new tooling which I doubt will ever happen.
No doubt you could find an air pump on the fireman's side for the late 1800's locos but I have seen very few.

I would be curious to find out who in Bachmann comes up with designs/sources for their models.

Rich

[jettrainfan]

Based on what I noticed, they got more than just a polish. They look like a nicer version of their older runs and could be considered close cousins to the spectrum counterpart if that says anything. The wood load in the tenders seem the same and that's probably the worse part about them. That's an easy fix so hopefully these do sell well.  

[Irbricksceo]

It sure looks nice, It's out of my Era so I probably wont get one but It looks great, if a bit overpriced (but Bachmann Products always sell for lower than the MSRP anyway). A small bit of detailing could make this almost perfect. The only issue I see is that it appears to retain the Plastic Crosshead Guides, something that I have found causes problems.

[Royce Wilson]

The pictures that Bachmann has displayed shows the engines to be tender driven and if that is the case these are not up dated engines.

There is a market for a nice 19th century 4-4-0 that is up dated to today's standards.
I don't mean to bash Bachmann and I truly hope these engines are really updated to Specturm standards and someone just used a photo of a N scale engine for the catalog.

Royce Wilson

[jettrainfan]

From what I could tell at the NMRA show, they're not the same engine. Based on the pics though in the new products announcement; they do look the same. I didn't bother taking a closer look since I was passing by the bachmann aisle before I left so I can't confirm that the model is still tender driven or not. It was definitely a lot nicer looking though as I said in my previous post. 

[Royce Wilson]

Can this be confirmed by Bachmann.

Royce Wilson

[richg]

I now see the OP was talking about the American 4-4-0, not the Richmond 4-4-0.
This will definitely be a first for the American 4-4-0.
I believe Harold did a sound in the Bachmann American 4-4-0.
I enhanced a couple screen shots of the page and I am pretty sure I see a drive shaft. I figure Bachmann used a file photo.

It will be interesting to see how the sound install is with the size motor that has been in the tender.
I doubt Bachmann would put the motor in the loco. That will reduce the weight over the drivers.
I have put a N scale non sound decoder in my tender drive 4-4-0's with no problem. Never tried sound but I figure SoundTraxx will come up with a compact decoder.The Bachmann sound locos all have a decoder designed for Bachmann locos that are not sold by SoundTraxx to the general public.
I can easily see a compact sound decoder based on the specs for the 750.
Speaker size, no idea.

Rich

[hminky]

If you wanted a motor in the cab 1870's 4-4-0, the Richmond 4-4-0 mechanism will fit under the OldTyme 4-4-0 shell.

Just requires some grinding.

The reason I put sound in the OldTyme 4-4-0 was making a fleet of 4-4-0's with the Richmond mechanism too costly.

Now all of that is moot.

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/bachmann_4-4-0/sound/

The Bachmann PDF notes that the pictures are the previous edition.

Posted on the Civil War Yahoo group:

As it happens, I was at the train show in Cleveland today so I asked the Bach-man about the 4-4-0.  Yes, it is being redesigned but they did not have a sample yet to show.  There will be new tooling but some existing parts will continue to be used.  Nobody there was able--or willing-- to say just what will be new and what will continue.  They did say the motor will move to the cab and there will be Sound Value sound in the tender, so my guess is they will retool only what is needed to make these changes and continue the rest, but, again, that's just my guess.  They also said it will be improved and upgraded but will still be standard line, not Spectrum.  Sound Value sound I take to be not so deluxe as Tsunami sound.  Delivery may be by the end of the year so I suppose we will just have to wait until then to find out for sure.

John Bopp

Harold

[richg]

Very good. Missed the part about the motor being moved to the loco. Sure sounds like a major upgrade. Very nice for the old time modellers.

Rich

[Doneldon]

The pictures that Bachmann has displayed shows the engines to be tender driven and if that is the case these are not up dated engines. >:(Royce Wilson

Royce-

Not true. There could very easily be a whole new product with a tender-mounted motor. Remember, those old 4-4-0s were
really small. A motor small enough to fit inside the boiler, especially if they wanted it not to fill the cab, would have to be
either very tiny (little power) or very expensive (market limiting).
                                                                                                    -- D

[richg]

The pictures that Bachmann has displayed shows the engines to be tender driven and if that is the case these are not up dated engines. >:(Royce Wilson

Royce-

Not true. There could very easily be a whole new product with a tender-mounted motor. Remember, those old 4-4-0s were
really small. A motor small enough to fit inside the boiler, especially if they wanted it not to fill the cab, would have to be
either very tiny (little power) or very expensive (market limiting).
                                                                                                    -- D

Been said the motor is going to be in the loco. With the suggested prices, this will not be a tender drive.

Rich

[Bucksco]

The new 4-4-0 will have the motor located in the boiler. The tender will house the eletronics and speaker. The loco is currently in the design phase - we used our current 4-4-0 model for illustration purposes.

[Doneldon]

The new 4-4-0 will have the motor located in the boiler. The tender will house the eletronics and speaker. The loco is currently in the design phase - we used our current 4-4-0 model for illustration purposes.

B'man-

Thanks for the clarification. We'd have been going around and around on this forever, and you know how
much some of us hate just going around and around.
                                                                                   -- D

[hminky]

The new 4-4-0 will have the motor located in the boiler. The tender will house the eletronics and speaker. The loco is currently in the design phase - we used our current 4-4-0 model for illustration purposes.

Please put at least 28" diameter tender wheels on the model and not those atypical 18" V&T wheels.

28" wheels:



31" wheels:



Thank you
Harold