NTS update 7/15/2010 (Walthers's lets the cat of the bag)

[asarge]

Bachmann has been quietly upgrading and modernizing their models. The coupler is part of this process. It will be interesting to see the new Cylindrical. I think they are trying to be less toy quality yet at a more reasonable price. Nothing wrong with that.

[tom mann]

I can't imagine that designing and building the tooling for a new coupler is cheaper (even in the long run) than licensing an existing design!

[lock4244]

It would be absurd for Bmann to tool a poor freightcar, yet crank out such a nice 44T. The Atlas Trainman stuff (new tooling) is nice tooling, just don't have the detail of the regular stuff like etched walkways. I think (hope) it'll be an acceptable car.

[David Leonard]

Bachmann has posted their announcements. There's a typo in the URL. You need to substitute ".com" for "_com" .

[MichaelWinicki]

I can't imagine that designing and building the tooling for a new coupler is cheaper (even in the long run) than licensing an existing design!

Without seeing the numbers who knows?

I don't think tooling costs are as big an impedance as they were as few as 10 years ago.

[asarge]

I think tooling costs may have less to do with the decision than a getting a couple on there that might increase the sales to modellers and even more, not having to pay a higher price to get them from someone else who also may not ship them to Bachmann when they need them.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It would be absurd for Bmann to tool a poor freightcar, yet crank out such a nice 44T. The Atlas Trainman stuff (new tooling) is nice tooling, just don't have the detail of the regular stuff like etched walkways. I think (hope) it'll be an acceptable car.

You'd think so Mike, but they did just that with the recent flat cars they did. Bachmann has long been very enigmatic. They made the yard loaf SD45s at the same time they did the beautiful consol.

[ljudice]

I just did some poking around various sites and came up with a ton of new HO announcements.  Any speculation as to why it takes so long - if ever - to learn what is coming in N?  

(Other than the possibility that not much is coming?)

[lock4244]

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/2010_NMRA.pdf

Hee hee, yard loaf.

The cylindrical is like a Kit-Kat... chunky. Use the body and replace the ladders, walkway, etc...

Unless I missed it, no mention of the 70T in the pdf.

[asarge]

UP1950's wrote
The trainboard brought up a good point . Bachmann in HO did a 52 and a 63 inch driver 4-6-0 . The smaller one looks more like the UP . I bet they go with the bigger one though . Crap , so close !

Yep they did got w/the 63" Drivers. Sorry Ritchie.

The 70 Ton Switcher is farther down the PDF right after the Peter Witt Trolley's

[sirenwerks]

The GE 70 tonner will be a nice addition, as the 4-6-0 for the steamheads, but I'm scratching my head on the GP7. I don't get the logic of choosing an already available model over doing something, well, not available. Maybe something similar at least, like a late phase GP9 or a CF7? (Yes, I know about the variations! But Athearn managed to choose one version, so I imagine another manufacturer could too.)

[up1950s]

Well as I thought , it's the 63 inch drivered 4-6-0 .

[MichaelWinicki]

The GE 70 tonner will be a nice addition, as the 4-6-0 for the steamheads, but I'm scratching my head on the GP7. I don't get the logic of choosing an already available model over doing something, well, not available. Maybe something similar at least, like a late phase GP9 or a CF7? (Yes, I know about the variations! But Athearn managed to choose one version, so I imagine another manufacturer could too.)

That's a valid point about the GP7, but we're seeing more of this kind of thing the last few years with manufacturers coming out with models that have already been produced by someone else.

If you take away a switcher type of loco (like a SW1500 or S1...S4) there aren't a lot of undone choices left that have mass appeal like say the GP7.  

Hey if it's a decent looking loco that runs acceptably, and can be gotten for less than a C-note which includes the decoder, then it could be a good seller.

[sizemore]

That tender dwarfs the loco. Hope they are "engineering" another tender for it.... Not liking those side rods they look cheap like the 0-6-0.

The S.

[Bob Bufkin]

WOT has there 70' baggage-express cars now listed on their website.

http://www.wheelsotime.com/products.php?category=hwb