Bachmann Trolleys

[Ted_Roy]

All,

I over the last month I have picked up a bunch of Bachmann trolleys and  I had a few to begin with. All the cars I have I have seen I have seen two versions of the open car, light tan and dark brown seats.  And I have seen now three versions of the power brick with both the closed and open cars.  The first that I saw had no soldered connections to the brick and it just screwed in.  The majority of the cars I have have the brick soldered to the body for lights etc.  The latest version I have purchased has sliders, and in fact the two new bricks have two different versions of sliders, smooth and with two dimples.

My question is is there a time line to their manufacturer?

Ted.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Ted,
This is a good example of the running changes we do on all items. We constantly add improvements as items are rerun; the cars with sliders are the most recent.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Barry BBT]

Mr. Bachmann,

What you are saying means that the sliders are back.  They were there on the original versions, went away and now they are back.

Barry - BBT

[on30gn15]

"Sliders"?

I'm confused.

That word to me means track pickup sliders like on O gauge 3-rail locomotives and some G gauge like LGB.

But that use doesn't seem to be what's discussed here, is it?

[Ted_Roy]

Yes, and no.  I am curious to the relative age of the cars that I have, and relate that to how well they run.  The cars with the soldered lighting connections seem to have the most problems.  I have not yet tried the cars with the sliders.  They were new the box, but the box was the older style, so I found it interesting that the sliders were only on those and not the others...

[Ted_Roy]

I took the block off the cars with sliders last night and they had no soldered connections to the block only the spring contacts.  Does this make them old sliders or new sliders? 

[Loco Bill]

I'm confused,  Like Barry I did not know sliders were back.   I would love to confirm this info for the historical database I am keeping.   

This is what I have on trolleys, but it is not very much, It will at least give you some ideas of was was made an when, but there were many runs.  93938,39, and 41 were in the catalog until 2007:

93938   UT Co   504   1990   Street Car   open, United Traction   P      yellow

93939   UT Co   1623   1990   Street Car   closed, United Traction   P      red&cream

93940   NP&S   1993   1993   Street Car   closed, Christmas 1993   P   X   red w/ green roof

93941   NP&S   1995   1994   Street Car   closed, Christmas 1995   P   X   green w/ red roof

93955   Hershey   6   1993   Street Car   closed, Hershey   P      

747694   None   None   1993?   Street Car   Trolley, North Pole ( musicial, auto-rev ) Made exclusively for Dillards Dept Stores

If you have some of the christmas cars   see if they have sliders.

[Graham Green]

Hi Ted Roy & Loco Bill , have checked my new trolley 93939 , If you have original box look inside end

flap for number , mine has 070629  which is date backwards 29th June 2007 , this could be last 

factory run , No LGB type sliders .

Regards Graham 

[Ted_Roy]

I checked all my boxes and the only markings I can see is a G7. Any other place I should be looking?

Ted.

[Graham Green]

 Look inside end flap on cardboard , not printed surface , the number is done with a stamp,

only have four of older dark red boxes , three have numbers for 2001 & 2002 , other has none

all new type red boxes have a number stamped inside.

Maybe this only started from about 2000.

Did the new type red box start from 2003 ?

Regards Graham

[Ted_Roy]

I will check tonight, thanks

[Loco Bill]

Graham, thanks for the input, this confirms my belief that sliders did not come back.

As far as the boxes are concerned, I only have comments made by a former VP of Sales.  He told me that the box changeover was not a sudden thing, but implememnted over a period of time.   2003 is a pretty common time for many runs, but at present I have no way of fixing the box color thing very closely.  I was told that box changes occured quicker for the more popular and more frequently run Items.  The date information on the flaps holds some promise for fixing it more closely.  Unfortunatly I do not have access to any quantity of boxes. 

I have been told but cannot confirm that some of the newer color boxes may have been out as early as 2001, but I have never been able to confirm this.

Anyone who is willing to check their boxes, and report will be appreciated by me. 

Wade  Colyer is very knowledgeable about Bachmann maye he will chime in . 

Thanks  again Bill

[Peter O]

I also picked up a 39-Closed United Traction on eBay in the last few months.

No sliders, old style box, G7 on the inside flap. Looks like it's had very light use and since I plan to convert it to battery power and have it automatically shuttle back and forth, I'm not too concerned about pickup, so long as the block is reasonably reliable.

I'd be interested in figuring out it's age.

Peter,

[Ted_Roy]

All,

I have checked and re-checked my boxes and none of the 6 I have has a number other than the G7.  Strange...

Ted.

[cockney132]

Probably need to order two new Bachmann Trolley Bricks ..... have an open & a closed trolley.  Both are older, and need new motors.  can these be ordered, what is the shipping and are they easy to install, instructions come with them?