Bachmann Smoothside Passenger Cars arriving now

[thomasjmdavis]

What Peteski said.

I think what set a lot of people off was the "Wozzers!" and the statement "Bachmann has really done their homework on these cars compared to their fluted side Budd? cars."  And, in fact, that is probably an accurate statement, in that the smoothside cars do appear to be better researched and more accurate than Bachmann's fluted cars.  But maybe they really should be compared to Kato cars (the "industry standard" $25 car) or Rapido (the ones in the same price bracket, but which appear to be much more finely made).  One of the things I've learned on Railwire is that there are several people here who really do their homework, and often better than the manufacturers do.  I'd like to see an unbiased review of the Bachmann cars (as opposed to the MR rah-rah for a major advertiser).

So, to Nato and other who may have purchased the cars,  when you get them, it would be a great service to the rest of us if you did publish a review that looked at how they are put together, level of detail, and fidelity to prototype.  On some of the Budd cars, this was relatively easy- the observation was just plain wrong (PS window pattern with a Budd roof, or was it the other way around), the baggage was "similar" to many Budd baggage cars, but no one could identify an actual prototype (and, in fact, Bachmann advertised and presold them as "85'" when they are apparently more on the order of 74').  The Budd coach appears to be the same prototype as a Con=Cor model (ATSF 1953 Budd coach), but the Con-Cor has (nearly) flush windows and MSRP $25 cheaper  (given my earlier post, I should now take calipers to one of my CC models and see just how accurate it is).  If Bachmann wants to send me one of theirs, I'd be happy to do a comparative review  .

[Nato]

                Peteski ,I must agree fully with you that this is just the usual Railwire Critique about a given model, which in this case is what I call Semi-Accurate, but flawed. Bachmann tries to make nice models, but does not always do their homework or research, the fifty foot box cars see a different thread here are another example, and they are really nicely painted and decorated even if they do not match the real roads cars. I do not mind the model bashing and I' am not upset over critique of my review (reviews) .    Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah. 

[Frisco Larry]

I purchased one coach and one obs. just to see what they looked like.

The Obs. is a fairly good model of the PS plan 4080 built for the PRR (four cars, Metropolitan, Skyline, Federal and Washington View) RE Observation, 2 Master Room (Showers), 1 Bedroom, Buffet, Lounge 22-seat.  I did not get out a ruler, but the only error that jumps out to me is that the hallway window opposite the Buffet is made the same size as the buffet window but should be slightly larger.  Except for the vents and ladder supports at the vestibule doors, all roof details are missing.  The under carriage is exactly the same as the coach and wrong, simply modified to fit a boat-tail car.  The biggest errors are in the interior details.  From the obs. to the vestibule,  the obs. room is fairly correct up to where the windows end, the section of the obs. room and the lounge is blank between the windows.  The bench sets and tables at the lounge window are correct.  Again no details where there are no windows between the lounge and the buffet.  The buffet area is well modeled except that the wall that abuts the car wall on the hallway side at the buffet is miss-aligned and is slightly visible in the window. The two Master Rooms are well done, but the two windows for the bathrooms have the same chairs as the Master Rooms (easily fixed with a sprue cutter).  At this point things go nuts,  instead of the bedroom that should be there, there are two bathrooms filling that space (again the sprue cutters can solve most of that).  Then the correctly modeled general toilet finishes the car.  The truck detail is extremely crude, but they are quite free rolling.

The coach is a fairly good model of the ACF 56 seat coach, built for the NYC, series 2645-2669.  The body shell appears to be correct, including roof detail, except that the women's room vent is located on the opposite side of the men's room, ie. both are on the same vestibule end.  At this point, they pulled a Con-Cor.  They did not make a correct interior for the car, they obviously reused the car interior from the recent "fluted side" coach.  The interior is correct for the ATSF Budd 48 seat coach series 2816-2860.  Thus the seats (48 instead of 56) do not match up with the windows.  Also the ATSF coach has two small restrooms on the blind end of the car, with a center aisle instead of the more typical larger restroom that has  the aisle next to the car side.  Thus on the blind end, the restroom detail does not match up with the windows, there are partitions which are in the windows etc.  The sprue cutters once more to the rescue. The under carriage also matches up with the ATSF coach, indicating they reused it as well.

The method for getting track power from the rails to the lighting board is interesting.  The crudely detailed trucks have metal cone bearings similar to KATO trucks, but the power is transmitted from the bearings to the car via a spring (one on each side of the truck) to two metal contact plates in the car floor.  The car body/roof is one piece and snaps on to the under carriage as in most car designs today.  To get the power from the floor to the roof, there are two more springs, each about 1/2 inch long, which are attached to the light board on the roof.  These are threaded thru guides in the car interior to make contact with the metal plates in the floor.  NOTE: this guide is well matched to blank walls in the Obs. car, but horribly matches up with one of the windows of the coach.  Sprue cutters don't fix this, but a little black paint works wonders.  IMHO, the lighting is the most realistic I have ever seen.  The system works.

A word off WARNING.  I liked to add color to the interior detail, painting the furniture upholstery, adding some window shades etc.  That and the fixes to the interior detail mentioned above require opening the car.  If you plan on any of this, plan on doing it all at the same time, ie. only open the car once.  It is extremely difficult to thread those long springs back into the channels without bending them, and every time you open the car you risk further damage.

[peteski]

Excellent review Larry. The only thing which would make this review more complete would be some photos of the items you described (very well I might add)..

[Cumbo2000]

                 In revisiting the MB Klein site this afternoon we can see what are popular roads on these cars and why. Pennsylvania observation cars (a fairly close prototype match) are now Out of Stock I can see the demand for these. All of the N&W cars are Out of Stock, modelers want them to run with their J's. The least popular road name is B&O lots of cars left, then New York Central and Union Pacific. Of course I don't know if most of the purchasers are East Coast and local area modelers which would account for low UP sales or if the Inaccuracy of these cars would be a factor. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

I find none of the new Bachmann smooth side passenger cars close to any B&O prototype. The B&O never purchased any SL baggage/express cars, and the Observation does not match any B&O prototype with only the coach serving as a stand-in.

BO 5503 (Passenger Car)

Bob Witt

[Cumbo2000]

My hyperlink didn't so try this one.  Bob Witt

http://rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-co5505bbr.jpg

[garethashenden]

"Within inches" could refer to many inches 

Or even full scale inches 

[thomasjmdavis]

"within inches" in reference to the ATSF Budd chair car is especially ironic.  While looking at my Con Cor version of the car, I pulled out the Apr 2001 MR, that had the drawing they are comparing to.  The HO scale side views are dimensioned at 85' over the diaphragm strike plates.  The N scale drawings of the underbody and interior are a good 6 scale inches short of that (the CC car fits this shortened drawing exactly, but I am sure would have anyway, since they used the same underbody as some of their earlier Budd cars).  And the prototype, per the ATSF mechanical dept drawings in the McCall Chair Car Geneology, is several inches longer than 85'.

[OldEastRR]

Excellent review Larry. The only thing which would make this review more complete would be some photos of the items you described (very well I might add)..

Yes, photos of both sides of each car would be helpful.

[Bobster]

Good evening,

Just to add a little more curiosity.  Didn't one of the PRR Pullman observations like the Bachmann car, did you say POS21A, Pullman 4080, go on to be purchased by Ben Butterworth and get renamed The Reveller and run on the Rock Island for several years?  I can't seem to find my references for this and am trying to operate from memory

Thank you for your help,
Bobster

[MRLX1020]

Good evening,

Just to add a little more curiosity.  Didn't one of the PRR Pullman observations like the Bachmann car, did you say POS21A, Pullman 4080, go on to be purchased by Ben Butterworth and get renamed The Reveller and run on the Rock Island for several years?  I can't seem to find my references for this and am trying to operate from memory

Thank you for your help,
Bobster

Bill Butterworth/Butterworth Tours had the former PRR Wake Island/Jack's Narrows - which became "The Reveller".  It's now reposing at Altoona at the PRR Museum.  It ran on both the Rock Island's Peoria and Quad Cities Rockets opposite of Bill's other car - former C&O dome observation "Big Ben" - named after his father, who among other things owned a foundry in the Quad Cities.

Bill had a great story about picking up the car from the PRR at Altoona in the early/mid 1960's - he arrived on the EB Broadway, got a ride from the station over to the coach works to meet the folks with which he had been corresponding with over the purchase of the car.  They verified payment, drafted the Bill of sale, requested transporation notice to Chicago, verified that the car had been serviced and new batteries installed, stocked with linens, and requested a switch over so the car could leave.
 
That evening, while enjoying his new car around Horseshoe Curve headed back west to Chicago, an over zealous Porter tried to throw him out of the "deadhead" car.  He explained to him that he had just bought it, and was headed home...it was a different world back then.  Bill passed away a little over 2 years ago, and this story was always one of my favorites.

[Bobster]

Thank you MRLX1020,

That's why I come here to ask questions.  Now not being a PRR devotee the question I have to ask is how close is the Bachmann observation car to the Reveller?   Could it be passable or is there just too much difference?  I didn't recall seeing the names of the cars the Bachmann observation was supposed to represent. 

Thank you,
Bobster

[OldEastRR]

Anybody have pictures of both sides of the Bachmann smoothside obs?

[Bobster]

Yes,

What OldEastRR said.  Too many variants and when they occurred.  I'd like to see both sides of the Bachmann model to see how it compares with pictures of the real thing.  Looks like it may be a window count issue.  That and the price to detail ratio.

Thank you,
Bobster.

[Mark5]

If I get a chance tomorrow I will take pics of both sides of the Bach SS Obsv.