A quick look at the new Bachmann GP40

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I picked up the new Bachmann GP40 for a street price of about $40. We have seen some photos of the exterior, but nothing of the interior.

Exterior: C+
The shell is molded in a single part, including hood, cab and walkway. Molding is very crisp - better than the original (Plastic frame) LL GP38-2, but there are issues. The cab has no door detail which is a bit surprising as this would not have required any major changes in tooling. The same front insert could do its job just as easily with the door making engraved.

I can understand the lack of a door in the back of the cab. Because this is a one piece casting, the area under the window openings needed a bump out. This is similar to the way Bachmann made the first generation C40-8. Certainly not the most prototypical approach, but one that saves tooling and casting time.

That brings us to the walkways which lack tread detail. They also have the cab steps filed. This reminds me a bit of the Atlas Roco HO engines of the 60's... Didn't the SD35 have this? They could have gotten around this by having the battery box and kick plates separate. But that would add to the tooling and production cost.

My guess is that this new shell came from a requirement to update the chassis. Was it cheaper to fix existing tooling or make new ones? Looks like they choose to make new ones under a strict budget.

But overall, this is actually a pretty good train set engine. The price is perfect for kids. The shell is robust and not as likely to break. And the engine wouldn't be a total embarrassment operating on dad's layout with his Kato fleet.

Let's look inside...
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Split frame, single flywheel.

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Looks like this has the ability to add a decoder in it by separating those contacts and using an NMRA 8 pin decoder. Cool.

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Trucks are the same as the GP7. Bachmann now has a nice assortment of interchangeable trucks: AAR-B, Blomberg, FB, and the strange FM AAR-B variant. I bet the AAR-A from the NW2/S4 would work here too.

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Well this may be the reason they cheaped out on the shell. This unit is built for sound. I wonder if this will be their first sub $100 sound engine? Or train set. I may just have to add a sound decoder for this.

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After I recontour the fuel tank.

Say what you want about Bachmann's electrical pickup choices. This engine runs smooth and dead silent. Top speed is about 80. I can't stress enough how well this engine runs.

[central.vermont]

Let's look inside...




Trucks are the same as the GP7. Bachmann now has a nice assortment of interchangeable trucks: AAR-B, Blomberg, FB, and the strange FM AAR-B variant. I bet the AAR-A from the NW2/S4 would work here too.

Daniel, Are those gears in the truck on metal axles? What am I seeing here.?
Also are you going to do a peteski thing and do a total tear down too show us the inner workings too? 

Jon

[wm3798]

What road names does this come in?  I've checked several sources and am coming up empty.
Lee

[mu26aeh]

Looks like Alaska, MKT, CSX, Conrail, UP and Santa Fe

http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=265_379_383

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-GP40-GP40-2-Locomotives-s/1674.htm

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Negative... Only MKT, CSX Future Moves, and some Alaska are the new run

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Here are some detail shots of the shell.

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[peteski]

Yup, train-set loco horns too.  Wrong shape, and solid front. 

[tehachapifan]

Doesn't look too bad. Might pick one up to tinker around with.

[AKNscale]

Looks better than the old one for sure. One of our hobby shops up here used to have a ton of the old run AK geeps for sale separately. I want to say they sat there from the time I moved up here in '08 to when they closed down this past year.

[GhengisKong]

Daniel, what would you say this new GP40 runs closer to? Atlas scale speed or Kato? 

[Albert in N]

  How hard is it to change out the oversized couplers with Micro-Trains couplers?

[Philip H]

How hard is it to change out the oversized couplers with Micro-Trains couplers?

They are body mounted, so I'd guess fairly easy.

[randgust]

Like the GP7 - the cab steps front and rear are smoothed over, yet it has windshield wipers.

Looks internally like the GP7, and that ran disturbingly well - just impossible to do a clean conversion to a CF7 without more work than it was worth.   

[u18b]

So.....

Based on the fuel tank..... is the Bachmann planning to release this with sound one day?

[wm3798]

Hmmm.  I guess another key question is how readily does a $25 Atlas shell slip on to the $40 Bachmann drive?

Looks like there's lots of room under the hood and in the tank for a Tsunami to work in there.

Lee