How do you find the Bachmann GP-50 (Southern)?

M

mikebalcos

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Aug 9, 2006
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Quezon City, the Philippines
balcos.blogsite.org
How do you find this loco?

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1855

I bought one from Beijing (Yin Ke Hobby Shop), and it was priced at a bargain. I don't like DCC yet, and DC engines are more affordable to me. I think it is a good runner. It does, however, make a little noise when running a little fast. Well, I'm comparing this noise to the one made by my Athearn Genesis F7A, so I guess it's not a fair fight. ;)

Overall, I'm happy with the engine. It was difficult to find a Southern bay-window caboose, though. So I just modified the paint scheme of one of my old Athearn wide vision cabeese. I know there is no such thing as a Southern red wide vision caboose, but I don't have a bay window caboose and I'm not strict about the prototype.

Mike B.
 
If they've re-built it the way they have many of their other locos, it'll be quite good for the money. Decent detail, a fair can motor and drive on a cast-metal chassis. A little noisier than Athearn, but can't come close to the quality of a Proto, Atlas, Genesis etc.
 
It's interesting. Depending on which one you look at, one appears to have truck-mounted couplers, the others have body mounted ones.

I would think the ones with truck mounted couplers probably have the old cheezy power-truck drive train (white box), versus the newer, better blue-box ones.

I would be fairly certain the DCC-equipped ones have the newer drive train, but I can't be sure of the "regular" ones.
 
I bought one of those Bachmann GP50's a couple of years ago. It was a descent runner, not stellar, certainly not up to the ruggedness of an Athearn. I have since pitched the Bachmann chassis and remounted the body on an Athearn chassis.
 
Squidbait said:
How hard did you look?

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH1179
Click to expand...

Mike's problem for the bay window caboose is that he lives in the Philippines. Horizon protects their hobby shops by not selling complete products to individuals (they will sell replacement parts to individuals). Apparently there are no hobby shops in that country that sell model train items. He needs a link to a retailer in the US or elsewhere who will export models to the Philippines. He can not deal directly with Horizon.
 
That's very strange. It's in stock at HH. I'll ask my friend at the LHS if he'd like to deal with Mike... and if Mike would like to deal with him.

Mike? The Athearn kit is about $10 USD, and in stock. No idea what the cost to you shipped would be, since the Canadian dollar has tanked recently.

I'm very surprised no online shops seem to have this caboose in stock, unless Athearn just recently re-ran it.
 
Russ Bellinis said:
Mike's problem for the bay window caboose is that he lives in the Philippines. Horizon protects their hobby shops by not selling complete products to individuals (they will sell replacement parts to individuals). Apparently there are no hobby shops in that country that sell model train items. He needs a link to a retailer in the US or elsewhere who will export models to the Philippines. He can not deal directly with Horizon.
Click to expand...

As Squid noted that does seem odd. We are a Horizon dealer in Canada (the one he mentioned might be able to help out) and there is nothing to stop retail customers from ordering directly from Horizon as long as they are willing to pay the advertised price and the shipping using their online store.... but that may be different for outside of North America. If the item is in stock we would happily ship it to the Philippines for him but as Squid said our dollar is pretty low right now so if I had to take a stab at a price it would probably be about $10.95 Canadian plus shipping.... small packet international is about $6.00 surface (4 weeks) or $8.15 air (6-10 business days) Canadian. Just shoot me an email if you want to discuss further david@parisjunctionhobbies.com
 
bob_suruncle said:
As Squid noted that does seem odd. We are a Horizon dealer in Canada (the one he mentioned might be able to help out) and there is nothing to stop retail customers from ordering directly from Horizon as long as they are willing to pay the advertised price and the shipping using their online store.... but that may be different for outside of North America. If the item is in stock we would happily ship it to the Philippines for him but as Squid said our dollar is pretty low right now so if I had to take a stab at a price it would probably be about $10.95 Canadian plus shipping.... small packet international is about $6.00 surface (4 weeks) or $8.15 air (6-10 business days) Canadian. Just shoot me an email if you want to discuss further david@parisjunctionhobbies.com
Click to expand...

I have 3 modeling friends that work for Athearn, and all three tell me that Horizon sells wholesale only to dealers with proof of a retail store. They don't sell to the general public, except for replacement parts, they don't sell to individuals dealing out of their homes or at train shows, and they don't sell to distributors. The only Athearn models sold through Walthers are Amtrak models and that due to the fact the Walthers has an exclusive licensing agreement with Amtrak for some of their paint schemes.

A couple of years ago I talked with the owner of a then new train store in Las Vegas, Nevada. He had tried to deal directly with Horizon and they were giving him a hard time because he wanted to do a train only store. They tried to convince him that he must do a full service hobby shop to make a success of it, and tried to coerce him into taking the complete Horizon line. He just contacted an East Coast hobby dealer and set up a system whereby he orders his Horizon train stuff through that other dealer. He doesn't have to deal with Horizon, he gets the same prices as he would from Horizon, and both stores get a better price from horizon because of the higher volume that 2 stores generate verses the inventory of just one store.
 
Russ Bellinis said:
I have 3 modeling friends that work for Athearn, and all three tell me that Horizon sells wholesale only to dealers with proof of a retail store. They don't sell to the general public, except for replacement parts, they don't sell to individuals dealing out of their homes or at train shows, and they don't sell to distributors. The only Athearn models sold through Walthers are Amtrak models and that due to the fact the Walthers has an exclusive licensing agreement with Amtrak for some of their paint schemes.

A couple of years ago I talked with the owner of a then new train store in Las Vegas, Nevada. He had tried to deal directly with Horizon and they were giving him a hard time because he wanted to do a train only store. They tried to convince him that he must do a full service hobby shop to make a success of it, and tried to coerce him into taking the complete Horizon line. He just contacted an East Coast hobby dealer and set up a system whereby he orders his Horizon train stuff through that other dealer. He doesn't have to deal with Horizon, he gets the same prices as he would from Horizon, and both stores get a better price from horizon because of the higher volume that 2 stores generate verses the inventory of just one store.
Click to expand...

You are half right... they wont sell wholesale to anyone without a retail store but they most certainly do sell retail direct to consumers on their website at Horizonhobby.com... but the prices are such that you can often do better buying from your local hobby shop

I own a store and have been a Horizon Hobby dealer for the past 5 years so I do have some knowledge of them... and they will sell just trains if that's what the dealer wants to do; just ask George's Trains in Toronto.
 
bob_suruncle said:
You are half right... they wont sell wholesale to anyone without a retail store but they most certainly do sell retail direct to consumers on their website at Horizonhobby.com... but the prices are such that you can often do better buying from your local hobby shop

I own a store and have been a Horizon Hobby dealer for the past 5 years so I do have some knowledge of them... and they will sell just trains if that's what the dealer wants to do; just ask George's Trains in Toronto.
Click to expand...

It may have been either a rep that the Vegas dealer didn't like or a misunderstanding that caused him to just give up on dealing directly with Horizon. Thanks for the clarification, I didn't realize that they would sell retail. I do appreciate that they protect their hobby shop customers. My local hobby shop won't stock or order from IHC because the company came out with that nice little 2-6-0 a few years back. The local hobby shop bought a bunch of them from IHC and less than 2 months later IHC was offering the models directly to the public for less than the hobby shop had paid IHC for the models, and IHC refused to give a refund, or do anything to help out the hobby shops who had bought their product for more than they were now charging the public!
 
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