New On30 Bachmann Diesel

Nice! It's about time and let's hope this new trend doesn't stop here at this one...hey, I like steam too but we all need more options- right?

 

Nice to see some more superstreets cars coming out too...yeah, they could be used for this too...

I like the new on30 engine, ill add that to my fleet. 

Good gosh, did you see that price?? A $129.00 engine with a $425.00 MSRP.

The price for this little plastic diesel is more than the price of a very nice Yoder brass GE 44 tonner.

As much as I Like this model, there will not be any of these operating on my layout.

Jeff

 

Mowingman can keep his money; I will be buying several of those diesels.  Really looking forward to their release.

 

And as David1 noted, nobody pays list price for Bachmann On30 products.  They are widely available at very affordable prices.

 

Thanks, Joey, for the heads-up on this!

 

 

Anything "ready to run" in On30/3 is what I consider a good thing, no matter how much I wish someone would do a small SW or Baldwin type switcher. I am with 1:48 to stay and find the narrow gauge equipment perfect for my small style layouts and such, so any help in the way of not having to scratch or kitbash a small radius running machine is a blessing.

Joey,

Thanks for posting this.  I've been thinking about getting into On30 for a while and just this week purchased my first Bachmann engine (a 2-4-4T) but would have much preferred a diesel like this.  Can't wait to get one.  While I wait I need to learn something about DCC, having only used TMCC 'til now.

Regards,

Jim

 

$550.00??...<gulp>.  Let's hope they saturate the market and the price drops for us frugal modelers! 

My guess it'll be $350-$375 or so on the street.  I will be buying at least two since center cabs are among my favorite locomotives.  Ideal switching engines.

It is always disturbing when a manufacturer posts their MSRP and shocks people even though we all know that high end distributors will soak up tons of stock and offer at a reasonable price. Reasonable that is, compared to the posted MSRP. We also have to keep in mind that Bachmann's offerings in On30 are (in my opinion) highly detailed for what they are and are no where near the price of brass in similar scales.

 

I'm not speaking specifically  of this model in particular, nor am I defending Bachmann on the prices, but they are doing something that few are doing by offering something for us 1:48 modelers with limited space. = On30 RTR

 

I have 3 HO scale Bachmann GP9's on the workbench due for kitbashing into On30 diesels and the fact that they cost like 30 bucks each and really do negotiate my 9 inch curves right out of the box makes them just as attractive as a ready to run model. Well, like everyone, my time is valuable and if I were to equate that into cost per hour to build them, I would say it's a fair trade either way (for me at least).

I'll just sit back and wait for my favorite spot- "the favoritespot"......

...however, you folks could just kitbash a center cab switcher for On30 - just do it faster than some of us do......hey, the new all weather sindows are nearly done{at least one side is}

Micro Mark is showing them at $238.00.  The Favorite Spot could be less yet.

 

Peter

That Micro-Mark price looks good to me!  I believe estimate for release is first quarter 2014.

Thanks for the reply Allan, at least I now have some idea of possible release.

Great looking critter.  I also really like the N scale offerings.  Is it time to go back to that scale? Also the HO GG1s!!! 

Nice looking engine.

As much as I like what they're coming out with, I have decided that I'm drawing the line on this. There's too much "only Bachmann, as it comes out of the box" modeling in On30 as it is.

I have instead ordered a Backwoods Miniatures body that is similar (but not exact) to the new Bachmann offering but mine won't be 'shake and bake Bachmann' as so many others will be.

Besides, I'm not a big fan of the 'side rod' look of the Bachmann diesel when Whitcombs often didn't have that feature.

Now, all I need is to get a Athearn SW1500 with early trucks to throw underneath it.

The latest I've heard/read is an April release.  Not quite "first quarter" but I'm getting used to seeing that kind of slippage with ALL scales in the hobby.  I don't necessarily like it, but it does seem to be something of the norm these days.

p51, that's the neat part of any hobby, let alone trains....making something your own, even if it'd be thru simple lil mods. You can take any chassis and make a new platform to go over it....my next bash will use C class trucks for a heavy mover. This, however, is not everyone's cup of tea, nor ability- but I feel a great many folks have more ability than they think, they just are afraid to try.

I like my lil class 91 GE export engine, found drawings for it and built it, but making something that never existed is fine too- your railroad, your call.

I've talked with someone who built one of these before and he didn't see it as any more difficult than any normal kit, especially since apparently the SW doesn't need to modified and the body drops right onto the frame.

I have wondered why so many people sneer at On30, but the one thing that I don't get is why so many people are focused on not painting anything, using Bachmann stuff right out of the box with no modifications of any kind.

Sure, I use plenty of Bachmann stuff myself (let's face it. they're almost the only game in town), but a little bit of sandpaper and paint and an afternoon can really change the way the stuff looks. For example, this is the very same car, before and after, with only a couple of hours of effort:

I saw one of those little critters at the booth at Springfield yesterday. Die cast body I believe. Very nice little engine!

Just got my Bachwoods resin castings set for a Whitcomb switcher. They're amazing, and I have a SW on the way, will be building the body up in the next couple of weeks, should have it completed before the end of February.

Thanks, Joey for sharing the link. I also thought your later comments were well made.

 

i am very interested in the 1:48 scale in the HOn3 but have yet to take a bite. I think

one that is holding me back is having to go with another power set up but as my friend

Joe of Orange Hobbies used to,say:"you can't take it with you!" 

I'm still looking forward to the release of this center cab.  If time permits, I'll check with my contacts at Bachmann during the coming week and see if I can get an update on delivery dates.

FYI, that Backwoods kit DOES NOT fit the SW1500 as advertised. They made the kit to fit an earlier version of the SW frame, so you have to cut a LOT of material off the frame to hope to fit it.

Also, I had to play with the running boards so many times to try to get it to fit, I snapped off two wires to the trucks from the motor as Athearn never thought you'd have to put something over that part so closely so many times.

Then, after spending an entire weekend putting the kit together, turns out they also didn't know Athearn added the DCC boards, so the kit won't fit the locomotive at all. And I just spent the better part of a day cutting the frame up so there's no way I can return the SW now!

To say I'm disappointed is an amazing understatement. In fact, I'm about as angry as I ever thought possible for something like this. I have wasted an entire weekend, almost $100 for the mechanism and I think about 70-80 bucks for the kit, which will never fit the engine it was supposedly designed for.

My only hope is to maybe be able to grind away the interior of the hoods to fit the DCC and board. That material is very thick, maybe more than half an inch. That is the only hope I have of making a running model out of this. but for all the work you have to do a great deal of modifying to both the SW1500 and the kit, they really should warn you in advance. It's pretty much false advertising to say it snaps right on when nothing could be further from the truth...

Hi Have contacted Backwoods re this problem & will get back if they reply.

James

PS just seen their online add which mentions the type of loco needed.

"Designed to fit a donor mechanism from an original Athearn 'HO' SW1500. (...The kind of mech. with the fuel tank between the trucks cast as part of the diecast mainframe. I just checked and there are some of these listed on eBay right now). 

I got a non-reply from Pete on this point. Apparently, I'm the only one who's complained on this point and othes just modified to make it work.

That's not the point. His website bills it as a 'drop into place' for the SW1500 when nothing could be further from the truth.

I think I got it to fit after a lot of work to the body, but he owes it to his customers to tell them IT WILL NOT just drop into place with a great deal of work to modify the SW and the body kit itself...

I just hogged away lots of material on one of the new Athearn sw1500s . it was time consuming but the new mech is much nicer and runs great. I removed Athearn's pc board and added a wired decoder rather than a drop in. worth doing though even with the extra time and cost of the drive. as for Backwoods Minitures great stuff but I have never been able to get a reply to my enquiries via email.

No reply in 3 weeks so guess I'll not be getting one.

James

Anyone have an updated ETA?

Just been onto the Backwoods site & guess what this was there:-

<small><small><small>STOP PRESS – OUR On30 CENTRE CAB SWITCHER Bodykit has now been updated to fit a donor mechanism you can actually buy!</small></small></small>

 

GIGO???

I asked Bachmann for the ETA on these at the Nat'l train show and they said "end of the year".

I understand (based on communication from Bachmann received today) that they should be available in Sept. or early Oct. at latest.

 

George Brown plans to review the locomotive once he receives a production version, which I believe is on the way to him right now.

Mine arrived at my door in Australia this morning as I was heading off to work.  U$370 delivered down under, including the tsunami sound module for it.  Hard to believe it was 12 months ago I was poking around train stores in New York whilst on vacation asking about these.  At least it finally arrived.  Now I just need to find some spare time to play with the new toy