A roll of the dice for 2slim

[2slim]

Hi guys,
Just got the November Model Railroader and saw this guy in the Bachmann ad:

D&RGW FTA

I'm going out on a limb and ordering a AB set of these because they have DCC decoders installed and they are in the Orange and Silver paint. But the real reason is I have no time to paint a set of Stewarts I'm not expecting Stewart quality for $86 but if they run as good as Athearn standard line locos I'll do a cart-wheel! They are just shipping The A's so I will do a 'field test' and report my findings.

2slim :thumb:

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I think mechanically those are Bachmann Plus, they should run decent, have can motors, and have about the same level of detail as a "blue box" Athearn, Lifelike P1k, etc.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

It's been a long time, maybe 8 or 9 years, but I bought an AB set of Bachman F's back then, they ran somewhat intermitantly, until I hard wired the power oickups. As I recall, the motor sat on a phosper bronze strip which was one of the power points. Soldering wire instead made a huge difference, and the locos pulled well. The other difficulty was installing Kadee's, they make a special kit for these locos, if I'm remembering correctly I had to trim some of the plastic of the clip that holds the truck sideframes on. Or live with the couplers sticking out too far.

 

[RioGrande]

I've seen these advertised on Ebay for months now. FT's are too early for me and any F units I do have are Stewarts or Genesis. It's too bad Stewart doesn't to yellow/silver Grande FT's since they look so much better than the original black scheme.

 

[petey]

Gary, The F-7s you speak of were Bach Plus, and the couplers mounts are as you described. I recently purchased an ABA unit on eBay, as I recall they ran OK. Previous owner had broken some of the coupler mounts, and the replacements had to be trimmed in order to fit. I believe "short" shank couplers could be used to improve the inter-unit spacing. I bought a FT in Canada in 2001, heavy, and a smooth runner, and much less expensive than the old Plus line. Since then, the discount price has gone down, and then back up, but still a good buy.

 

[Lighthorseman]

I Have Some, Too!

I have the Bachmann Plus F-7 AB units. Got them at a fire-sale price on a closeout. The only complaint I ever had was that the couplers were super hard to convert, and I wound up making drawbars to connect the units. I ran the powered ABs with a pair of dummy ABs from Athearn. They run very smoothly, and are nice, heavy locomotives. I personally have no serious gripes with them, other than the couplers. Here's a shot of them, (first two from the left) stripped from the original Pennsy colours, and repainted to CN stripeys. The third from left (dummy B Athearn) was repainted as well, and the last one is an out-of-the-box Athearn dummy.

 

[RioGrande]

I read the reviews of Bachman plus when they first came out. Some comments I remember from the reviews:
-F7 has an odd mix of phase 1 and phase II details not normally seen on most F units
-F7 pilot was too high including the batten strip.
-F7 shell sat high off the rails, noticably higher than the B unit (correctable)
-Couplers were near impossible to convert to scale close coupling
-Mechanism ran fairly smooth (on the up side)

I don't really care for anything Bachman makes in the diesel department, but if anyone is looking for nice low cost F units, I'd take a close look at Proto 1000 F3's - they almost look like Stewart's, and run very smoothly, and cost similar the the Bachmann Plus.

If you can afford a little more, Stewart F units can be had for attractive prices with all the Athearn Genesis and Intermountain Regal F units on the market. Stewart F's have the best smoothest running chassis I've seen, better than the 2 more expensive makes, and the shells have nice proportions and come in many phases of F3 and F7. Kadee makes an easy kit #450 to convert Stewart F units to scale 3' close coupling and they look nice. My 3 cents worth.