Hmmmm. DDA40 now with sound???

[u18b]

Just saw this.
Maybe it is old news.
But I was unaware of it.

Would be curious to see these.

[TrainCat2]

The Sound of silence . . . . . ?   

If we can't see it, link to it or hear it, it does not exist . . . . 

[C855B]

Yeah, they announced it roughly mid-2013 and deliveries have been in the past couple of weeks.

No surprise this was going to happen. It was apparent from the tooling in the frame and fuel tank in this version (2009 release) that sound was in their long-range plan. Though I'm not a fan of model sound, I'm curious to hear one to check if they got the horn right. The Leslie S5TRRO as it was tuned back then could be a screamer.

[u18b]

Walthers has them listed and BLW.

I guess I missed the announcement last year.

[nkalanaga]

Does the sound include both engines, or just a typical single-engine unit?

[wcfn100]

our Sound Value SoundTraxx® diesel sound package with prototypical prime movers (dual-motor sound), 3 air horns, and bell–all in 16-bit polyphonic sound.

Jason

[peteski]

They are already sold out at MBK.

[Chris333]

They are already sold out at MBK.

I see 24 in stock right now.

[peteski]

I see 24 in stock right now.

They must have restocked, or got other road numbers.    Last time I checked (either yesterday or two days ago) they showed up as out of stock.

[spookshow]

I'll be interested to see what people have to say about the sound. I don't think I'm going to buy one just so I can test out a new decoder.

Cheers,
-Mark

[Nato]

          I have two on the way from BLW. All reports on the various other forums is that the sound is fantastic, I

[Nato]

           I have two coming from BLW. From reports on other discussion groups they sound fantastic. I will report when I receive mine. The biggest gripe is that it is the same old body shell tooling used since day one on the original one powered truck model with flashing roof top beacon Nate Goodman (Nato).

[spookshow]

That is not true. The shell is new as of the 2009 re-release (both shorter and narrower). Still not quite correct as per the prototype, but definitely more correct.

Cheers,
-Mark

[Chris333]

They must have restocked, or got other road numbers.    Last time I checked (either yesterday or two days ago) they showed up as out of stock.

Could be. The hoppers were sold out, but they had more in stock last time I looked.

[peteski]

That is not true. The shell is new as of the 2009 re-release (both shorter and narrower). Still not quite correct as per the prototype, but definitely more correct.

Cheers,
-Mark

This is something I would love for someone to explain to me.

Bachmann totally redesigned the mechanism. They used motors which are narrower than the previous version.

Bachmann totally redesigned the shell. It has much better details (and free-standing grab irons). Yet, they decided to make the shell wider than it needed to be: much wider than the motors they used.

Then there is the passageway between the hoods:  This model has plenty of room to make that area open (like the prototype). But they decided to blank it out and put a flywheel from one of the motors directly in that area.  I will have to cut the flywheel off to open up that passageway because to relocate motor would require a major surgery.

The relief on the truck sideframes appear to be too shallow. Those just don't look right.

The blinking beacon is also silly but it doesn't bug me as much.

What were they (not) thinking?!