Buying old engines

[boxman]

When I see an older diesal engine for sale on ebay I don't know what I am looking at by just the Model # of Bachmann engine. For example: Lighted F9 Diesal PN 61550. Is there a chart telling me how old it is and a better description of what exactly is a F9 a long with other early model diesals Bachmann made. Any help would be great...Boxman

[Conrail Quality]

Try Spookshow's locomotive encyclopedia.
http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/locolist.php?diesels=6&steam=1&traction=2&nonbrass=3&sortby=2&Submit=Submit

Scroll down past Athearn and Atlas to Bachmann.

Timothy

[Franz T]

The problem is that Bachmann does not change items numbers as new, improved releases are issued, so model #s are not an indication of the age of the item being offered. For example, a current release Spectrum Dash 8  Santa Fe   (very good quality) will have the same model # as a late 90's Spectrum Dash 8 Santa Fe (not quite as good, but still decent). Older Bachmann locos, particularly the Standard (Or "Trainset") versions are notorious for their less than stellar quality, especially  if they are more than 10-15 years old. On ebay, for any older Bachmann loco, as long as the seller is willing to pay for shipping, I would not offer more than 50 to 75 cents....Again, that would be ONLY if the seller pays for shipping, otherwise I wouldn't bid at all

[boxman]

Thanks guys..Boxman

[derricknscaler]

i have three old n scale 0-6-0 that says at_sf on the side
and i was wondering if there any dcc decoders i could hook up in it its really old and runs well also have a minitrix 0-6-0 looks like a thomas engine trough it has buffers in the same style as thomas  (watched the show when i was little)

[TCWORLD]

If they are in any way similar to the old 0-4-0's then its probably not a good idea to try. I've tried to convert 4 of the old 0-4-0's and only one of them was relatively successful, although i ended up scraping it (made a nice stationary loco on my layout with alot of weathering). If you are going to try with your 0-6-0 id recommend something like the TCS M1 as its small enough to fit in the tiny locos (0-4-0 and presumably 0-6-0), and also is very hardy in that ive installed literally the same decoder 5 times in different locos, and its still working perfectly.