New Steam Locos

[Searsport]

Here is a link to a video launching a new steam model by Bachmann Europe developed in partnership with the UK's National Railway Museum and it's shop, Locomotion Models, and a big UK model railway box-shifter, Rails of Sheffield.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhZQ-gXyGRA&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=Mailing+List&utm_campaign=07a0ff62ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_11_08_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_74d01bc2ed-07a0ff62ad-5831517

This sort of partnership is now a major way new steam loco models emerge in the UK, with the NRM also partnering with other manufacturers such as Rapido, Hornby and Dapol, all of whom also partner with other retailers for commissions and limited editions, resulting in a steady flow of several entirely new steam loco models every year, for the UK market of 65 million people.

I wonder if this might be a way to go for the US market, of 330 million people? Bachmann USA often say on this site they infrequently produce new models because there is no market for them and they would be uneconomical. They also used economics to justify reducing the detail on the low-boiler 4-6-0. But maybe markets have to be made?? With millions of people locked down for covid the UK model railway shops are booming, albeit by mail order. The various limited editions usually sell out on pre-order. And you will note that each engine road # modelled by Bachmann for the "Precedent" class 2-4-0 model comes with accurate loco and era specific detail, not just a different road # and paint.

At the very least it seems to me a model of a small Baldwin 2-8-0 to Spectrum standards might be possible bearing in mind that the old MDC / Roundhouse / Athearn 2-8-0 still seems to sell despite its limItations (no criticism - I have several).

Just a thought,
Bill.

[rich1998]

Just an opinion but diesels are selling. Steam not so much.
Some years ago I put a Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0, low boiler 4-6-0 and high boiler 4-6-0 next to MDC 4-4-0, 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 and no comparison. Bachmann won big time. Much more detail. The MDC were strange. All the same size boilers. and Plane Jane's. A few years ago I spoke with an Athearn rep who said the Roundhouse steamers were not being produced anymore. I cannot find them at Athearn.

Rich

[Searsport]

Hi Rich, the ex-MDC 2-8-0s were re-issued earlier this year in several paint schemes and sold out almost as soon as they arrived from China.

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=2-8-0&OA=True&PageSize=72

I got these 2:

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH84917

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH84966

The 2-6-0s last came out in 2007:

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=2-6-0&CatID=THLS&OA=True&PageSize=72

and I got these 4:

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=RND84703

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=RND84704

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=RND84705

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=RND84706

As you note the 2-8-0s and 2-6-0s both use the same boiler casting and cab and tenders, as do the 4-4-0s, also last re-issued in 2007 and which I missed at the time:

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=4-4-0&OA=True&CatId=THLS

But looking forward, a model Bachmann might like to consider is the SP & T&NO moguls, which were very powerful and handsome looking engines and could be coupled to the Vanderbilt medium oil (or coal) tender already in the Spectrum range. Re steam v diesel popularity as models, the problem with a lot of american steam is the engines were just too big to fit on a small model RR. But small steam models on the 8-inch - 10-inch long range could fit and appropriately sit and operate on a railroad that would fit along one wall of a bedroom in a modest house or flat. These small steamers spent a lot of time switching, not just racing thru the plains / forests / mountains / swamps of continental america!

Accurail now offer a vast range of 36-ft boxcars for almost every RR you ever heard of, and they all need steam to switch them! As do the Atlas 36-ft reefers.

Bill.

[jward]

While i like the idea of museum commissioned steam locomotives, unlike the British we here in the USA did not use standardized designs. Each railroad had their own standards which makes it interesting for modellers, but somewhat impractical to generate the numbers needed to justify the tooling.

The concept. however, would work well with diesels. Most of those were standardized designs with options features specified by the purchasing railroad. (Southern high hood locomotives would be an example.) I can see this working well for museums and groups wishing to fund restoration of various diesels. Want to fund rebuilding of a C&O GP30. for example? License a limited edition Bachmann GP30 in C&O colours, with licensing fees going toward restoration of the real one.

[Trainman203]

Long ago Varney used the same boiler on the Casey Jones 4-6-0 and the Old Lady 2-8-0.  And in the 70's Roundhouse produced a series of 4-6-0, 2-8-0, 4-4-2, and maybe a 2-6-2 if I recall..... all using either a common Harriman boiler or a PRR boiler.  And a choice of rectangular or Vanderbilt tender depending on assumed prototype.  Wouldn't want too many of those next to each other.

[Searsport]

Hi Jeffery, UK railways did not use standardised steam designs before they were all amalgamated into British Railways in 1948. Each railway designed and built it's own steam locos, and there were over 100 independent railways pre-1922, when they were consolidated into 4 main operators to survive following the wear and tear of WW1. The reason they built their own was partly the result of Victorian era competition laws that prohibited railways from building locomotives for other railways. There were several independent builders, such as Dubs, Sharp Stewart, Beyer Peacock,Vulcan Foundry, Armstrong Whitworth, etc., who built locomotives for sale to the empire and overseas, and a lot of their engines went to South America, Africa, India, etc. Those independent loco builders did often get overflow contracts from UK railway companies that needed more locos more quickly than their own shops could build, but they built to the rly company's design. The independent builders also sold off-the shelf locos to a few small UK railways that did not have the capacity to design and build their own - shortlines in US terms, but those small railways more often bought retired locos second hand from larger railways that were replacing older locos with newer, more capable engines, as that was a lot cheaper for a small rly than to buy a new engine. Thus there was a huge range of locomotive designs, and although when railways merged into 4 main companies in 1922 (LMS, LNER, GWR, Southern) the 4 new Chief Machanical Engineers set about consolidating their own loco shops and replacing older obsolete classes with more modern company standard designs, many of the Victorian designs were still operating into the 1950s and even 1960s, with some whole classes of locos surviving intact (except for casualties) from pre-WW1 into British Railways ownership in 1948. That is why there are so many preserved steam locos in Britain. There is a major interest in older steam locos amongst UK modellers and the manufacturers are increasingly focused on that. Each loco model has the potential to represent several eras, with suitable modifications. Below is a link to the current Bachmann UK steam range. Hornby, Dapol, Heljan and others are also producing steam. A common factor is that a lot of these are made in the same factories in China, so the UK manufacturer does the design work, usually in conjunction with a museum, heritage railway, or rly company historical society, but the Chinese do the tooling, on demand, so the actual maufacturing side is a "well oiled machine". Clearly, this "well oiled machine" could be deployed to support any market, as indeed it does for US diesels.

https://www.bachmann.co.uk/category/model-railway/branchline/steam-locomotives?page=1&sortby=5&numper=100

Bill.