You can get great sound in your engines without any soldering if you have a professional do the installation.  Unless you are a real technology geek and you have done this kind of work before, like building radio kits, the odds of you becoming frustrated and even ruining the decoder are relatively high.  The fact that you asked about doing only a little soldering prompted my answer.

Right. I spend al lot of time upstairs waiting for glue to dry in the basement.

I've been asking for Sidney for about a decade, and HO Scale Paxton was announced back in 2017. Only now do we finally have Sidney on the cards. 7 1/2 years after Paxton was first announced for HO Scale. I still can't believe it took this long. I thought HO Scale would never get Sidney, and that he was going to be in N Scale first. Well, better late than never. We all certainly hope Sidney's eye mechanism will be fixed, which unfortunately botched Paxton's HO Scale model, but was corrected on his Large Scale model. Hope they can do the same for HO Scale with the upcoming Sidney model. Not many have even bothered to make customs of Sidney, most likely because he never had a TrackMaster model to source a face from.

Mainland Diesel was a weird niche pick, but still welcome to me. This is also the first official piece of merchandise for these background characters, but only one was announced, and that begs the question: Will there be more variants with different faces? One of them is Ulli; the only one to actually have a name. There's also the Brazilian Class 08, Fernando, who would also share the same tooling, and his face is on one of the Mainland Diesels, as well as an Indian one. Bachmann still has Grumpy Diesel, in addition to the original one with the friendly face, but with the Mainland Diesels having different faces, it would actually make sense to own more than one. The only thing holding Bachmann back from making Splatter and Dodge is the CGI mandate.

On the topic of niche recolors, Green Salty would be possible, but it's taking indefinitely long to bring Salty himself back.

Although I personally hope for Norman in HO Scale, the most popular picks for the next newly-tooled engines are Whiff, Nia, Harvey, Diesel 10 and Hiro. Hope Bachmann does go through with making Harvey and Diesel 10 at some point. Although those two would be more expensive because of their attachments, they're going to be big sellers regardless. They might make Harvey first, since his crane is simpler than Diesel 10's claw. Just manually rotate the crane, and turn the cogwheel to raise and lower the hook. Basically "Cranky on wheels" as James described. If Rebecca proves to be a popular seller, Bachmann may finally announce Hiro for HO Scale, as the next tender engine. Only one Mainland Diesel was announced, and that begs the question if we'll get more variants with different faces, including Ulli (the only one to be named). Now that Sidney is on the cards, another choice for a Class 08 repaint would be Fernando. Many are hoping the CGI mandate would be lifted so we would get Splatter and Dodge, especially with the demand Diesel 10 has.

Edward has to be the next N Scale engine, now that Henry is coming. I'm hoping by the end of the year we hear something on N Scale Diesel and Paxton. N Scale Edward has to be announced for the 2025 catalog; to complete the original Steam Team in N Scale, as well as be fitting for the 80th Anniversary. For rolling stock, N Scale desperately needs non-troublesome open wagon variants, as well as the BR Brake Van. If N Scale was to start getting engine repaints, options include LBSC Thomas, Origin James, Sidney, 'Arry and Bert. The former two are fitting for the anniversary.

If Large Scale was to get anything, Bachmann should make LBSC Thomas and Origin James. Maybe even Large Scale Sidney.

Quote from: JLK2707 on August 10, 2024, 03:34:55 AMWe can still get a BR brake van, Edward, Duck and Oliver for N scale next year. The BR brake van is not completely out of the question.

In addition to this, do you think an LSBC Thomas and a black James would be possible for large scale and n scale?

Edward I would say is a "given" for next year.  Hopefully Duck will happen after Edward, but I'm willing to bet he will be a 2026 announcement depending on when they finish Diesel/Paxton.  A BR brake van being included in N scale with other rolling stock announcements would be nice, regardless if they use the farish tooling or the large scale tooling scaled down to N.

I think an LBSC Thomas and Origin James could work as limited runs in large scale.  I wouldn't mind them in N scale either as extra repaints they want to throw in for the anniversary.  Maybe Edward and LBSC Thomas in the winter announcements and Origin James during the next years NMRA? 

I think these announcements are pretty good, even if the majority of them are recolors.
It's good that they finally got Sydney out of the way, and the other diesel is a nice surprise addition, too! I also think the new rolling stock recolors are excellent picks as well!

The N Scale announcements are probably the highlight for me! I'm glad we're finally getting Henry, and I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually really like the Brake Van that they chose! It appeared a lot in the Brenner era of the show, and it has a pretty nice livery, too. It's also nice that the N Scale range is forming it's own identity from HO and Large Scale witg the rolling stock choices as well. I'm not super excited about Hannah, but at least they're getting her out of the way pretty quickly.

I'll probably make a post over the next week or so about where I think the range could go from here.

Completely agree. Their chances are less likely, but I'd love to see Arthur, Murdoch, BoCo or Stepney

With the summer announcements revealed, I did want to touch upon next year's potential HO engine announcement sooner rather than later. While I understand that there are a handful of Nia fans, I think that it would be in Bachmann's best interest to go for a character who all fans, young and old admire, especially since next year is the 80th Anniversary. Hiro, Harvey, or Diesel 10 are the three that come to mind, as all have appeared in CGI, have interesting designs, and are most importantly well liked amongst all fans.

Very happy with this summer's selection of new products! It is pleasing to finally see Sidney added to the line of class 08s, and while surprising, the Mainland Diesel as well. Both offer new eye-catching paint schemes and are solid choices while Stanley is still under development.

However, I am most excited about the HO rolling stock, particularly the flat wagon with diesel fuel drums, a piece I fondly remember from the model series. The fact that Bachmann put in the extra effort to add text to the drums as well as offer the flat wagon in a darker gray paint scheme like the show really speaks to how much they care.

The reintroduction of the tar tanker is fantastic too, and as others have stated, I'm glad to see the extra text on the sides to match Season 1.

The china clay wagon is a bit odd, and like others, I would have preferred the classic brown ones from Season 2, as shown here: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ttte/images/d/d1/TheDiseasel5.png/revision/latest?cb=20230508190117. However, if there will be an exclusive new tooling for the load, I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

N Scale Henry is a given and it is great to see him added to the rapidly expanding line of N engines! One left to go to complete the Original Seven!

As far as rolling stock, I'm glad to see another brake van added, although I am also surprised that they went with the LMS 20 Ton Brake Van before going with the BR one. And Hannah feels like a logical variant of Henrietta's tooling, given that they went the CGI route with Henrietta, adding a face.

Finally, while not a Thomas announcement, it is exciting to see a roundhouse getting added to the N line. As others have stated, I hope that this is foreshadowing an N Tidmouth Sheds. However, the one concern that I do want to point out is that the N Turntable has less tracks leading to it than the HO one. Thus, I would imagine that the angle of the stalls is going to be very sharp. Even so, I look forward to seeing how they tackle this one.

https://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=258_366_368&products_id=7210

https://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=265_421&products_id=4909

All in all, a very solid line-up, and with the majority of these as recolors, I have hope that there are even brighter announcements ahead in 2025.

Does anyone know what happened to display this year and the narrow gauge figures .