EMD E7 Announcement Question for Bachmann or Yardmaster?? Update

[brokenrail]

Hello Bachmann or Yardmaster
In the online Bachmann store they list a New EMD E7 coming soon with a picture of a O  scale model.Are they going to make the B units for them ?Are there any pictures or pre -production photos that can be shared of the actual models?Ii is now may 2016 and they are in the 2016 catalog anything yet??
Thanks,
Johnny Adam

[gbradley]

Hi I too am keenly interested in seeing at least a pre production sample of the new E7. How soon can we see that?

[brokenrail]

It seems by how many times this has been read many are interested ,but it is a mystery to me why this type of a question directly to Bachmann gets ignored after 10 days.Be nice to just get a we cannot or we do not know.Maybe it is the type of question where you must call service or something like that.Any Ideas?
Johnny Adam

[Bucksco]

Nothing to show at this time. It will only be sold as an A unit.

[brokenrail]

Thanks, No B units is disappointing when b units are offered for the f7 ,FT and the FA2 .I think many would agree .Would it make a difference if we took a poll since it is still early before there release?Maybe change who ever makes these type of decisions base on potential customer input???
Thanks Again for your time,
Johnny Adam

[thewizard]

Yardmaster,

I know other companies will speculate that they'll do a variation on a model if the first sells well enough. Would you be able to speculate that if enough A units are sold, that Bachmann would consider doing the B unit? I ask because too often companies do limited runs of a model without announcing companion models, and it ends up being something I would have bought, if I had known I could get the rest later on....

It might help if I used specifics: For example, Walthers announced their MainLine passenger cars, but I didn't buy because they didn't offer an observation car. Now, they offer an observation car, but they're sold out of the first run of cars. I don't want an A unit, but I might be convinced to buy an A-B-A set (but to be fair, not in the offered road names)

[Len]

The problem with 'B' units is they don't actually sell that well, at least in HO. At the LHS my repair shop was located at, they started out buying 1 'B' for every 2 'A' units. Two years later almost all the 'B' units were still sitting on the shelf, and an inventory check showed they only sold 1 'B' for every 10 'A' units that went out the door. They finally had a 'B' unit clearance sale to open up the shelf space, and went to "Special Order Only" for 'B' units if they were offered.

Len

[brokenrail]

How about a packaged power A and dummy b all in one ?

[Len]

How about a packaged power A and dummy b all in one ?

They sold a bit better than just 'B' units by themselves, but people would complain about having to buy the 'B' to get the 'A'. Especially if it was a road that didn't actually have any 'B' units, or very few of them. About the only A/B combo that sold pretty well was the one of the restored "Southern" units.

Len

[brokenrail]

Didn't Burlington have a stainless steel finished E5? Humm?Who else did the E7 besides previously mentioned? Model power may be one of them.Hope the Bmann didn't acquire there tooling. Ya, um, by the way is this going to be a all new tooled E7 by the Bachmann ?
Johnny Adam

[Piyer]

Another reason for a lack of B-units is that passenger B-units didn't sell very well on the prototype, whereas freight B-units sold in much higher numbers. This is partly because a passenger train needs less horsepower to get over the road than a long freight train, and partly because the passenger units in question had more horsepower per unit than their freight counterparts.

Lastly, whereas a freight B-unit could be (relatively) easily tacked on to any freight train consist, a passenger B-unit was only useful on the longest of passenger trains, while a stable of passenger A-units could be used, alone or in sets, on any and all passenger trains. Because of this, you'll such modifications as a Rock Island passenger B-unit with a cab at one end so that when the train split into Denver and Colorado Springs sections they wouldn't need to add an extra locomotive to the mix, CNW converted some ex-UP B-units into commuter locomotives by carving a cab and stubby nose into one end of the units, and then there was Missouri Pacific #7100. Built in 1940 by EMC/EMD, the AA-6 was basically an E6A carbody with one 1000hp engine and an A1A-3 wheel arrangement. In placed of the rear engine (EMD E-units are twin-engined locomotives) the #7100 had a baggage compartment.

Getting back on track, for the curious, here is a listing of EMD and ALCO "covered wagon" freight and passenger units....


 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

	A-units	B-units
EMD FT	555	541
EMD F2	74	30
EMD F3	1111	696
EMD F7	2366	1483
EMD F9	99	156
ALCO FA/FB-1	445	249
ALCO FA/FB-2	334	194
EMD E3	17	2
EMD E4	14	5
EMD E5	11	5
EMD E6	91	26
EMD E7	428	82
EMD E8	450	46
EMD E9	100	44
ALCO DL-103~110	74	4
ALCO PA/PB-1	169	39
ALCO PA/PB-2	81	8

[brokenrail]

Any actual pics we can look at since it is in the 2016 catalog but

Johnny

[Len]

Regarding the ALCO DL's in Piyer's list, the four "B" units were one DL-108 owned by the AT&SF, and  two DL-108's and one DL-110 owned by the Southern.

60 of the 74 "A" units were DL-109's owned by the New Haven. GM&O and Southern owned 1 DL-109 each, the other 12 "A" units were primarly DL-107's, with a smattering of DL-105's and one DL-103b.

Len

[brokenrail]

Asking for a update on releasing some pics for the New E7 .It has been a few months from what we were told before. Just Curious.
Johnny

[Bucksco]

Not yet.