Why not, Bach-Man?

[bbmiroku]

I just picked up the 2024 Bachmann catalog.  Looking through the N-scale section, I've noticed that it's starting to look bigger than it has, bravo!  Good job!  I'm also very glad to see you're finally producing the Old-Time 4-6-0 in a few paint schemes to go with the Old Time Boxcars, Gondolas, and Water Tank Cars. Woohoo!

Buuuut...

Why is the smallest engine a 0-6-0?  What happened to the magnificent 4-4-0 engines that you used to sell in N scale?  For that matter, where did the John Brown, DeWitt Clinton, and the other truly old-time engines in HO go? For those of us wanting to model the earliest start of railroading in America we're left high and dry for the most part...

I recently bought the Durango & Silverton N-scale set and am sorely disappointed in the spare cars offering that you have.  Just the Bobber caboose?  What about a freight train for the D&S? Can't do much with a Bobber if there's no freight for it to watch over...

[Yard Master]

Hi bbmiroku,

The 19th Century 4-6-0 in N scale is filling the place in the line that the 4-4-0 American used to be in. We moved away from the 4-4-0 because it was older, less detailed tooling, and because we wanted to upgrade from the existing tender-drive motor to one that is inside the boiler, and add DCC Sound. The 4-4-0 is too small for these upgrades, but we may be able to bring it back someday if the technology advances.

We don't have immediate plans for Durango and Silverton freight cars in N scale, or bringing back the early steam locomotives in HO scale. But it's something we can consider for a future introduction.

[bbmiroku]

I may be overstepping boundaries here, but have y'all thought about putting N-scale motors in the "Early Locomotives" in HO and putting Z-scale motors in the N-scale shells? That way you just have to sharpen molding details. I think the technology is already here...

[Yard Master]

We haven't looked at putting N scale motors in HO locomotives, but we did look at the possibility of using Z scale motors in N scale. However, the Z scale motors have a much lower startup voltage and higher RPM, and will burn out and run too fast when run on a standard 12 volt power supply.

[bbmiroku]

Different transformers should fix the burnout and if wound correctly should give an almost immediate start-up for a DC engine.  I don't think the DCC technology is there yet for tiny enough decoders for early trains in N though, so they would definitely have to be DC (for now)...