I know I give you steam guys a hard time...all in fun mind you I just hope this is a great looking locomotive and a great runner right out of the box I do have a question though.... By the ad posted above...this thing will be DCC/Sound. Is sound the only version it will be made in ??? Or will there be a DC or straight DCC version made ??? The reason I ask....I didnt like the look on THE Wife's face when I showed her the ad...LOL
If this follows the Bmann's last releases this will be a dual mode decoder being capable of being run on DC or DCC. However I suspect the sound will only be in the DCC mode but I could be wrong on that. Athearn's Challenger has sound in both modes. But the Bmann catalogue does list some locos with sound and some without for the same model. So maybe there will be a slightly cheaper version of this without the sound.
Thnxs John... If it does in fact come in a DCC only version (no sound)...there may be steam running on THERR someday Maybe !
Resist the force Luke er George. You can do it. Just think you would have to put in a coal tower, water tank, or at least water column with a pump house. And it is a coal burner so think of the cinders and soot dusting everything, sparks starting fires in the dry foliage along the right of way. Plus the range is limited by the water carried before you need another pump house and water column or tank. And for that price, even with a somewhat lower price for a version without sound, about $80 lower based on Bmann's pricing, you can have about six cute little 44 tonners that can pull at least 19 cars apiece on the water level. Paint some of them pink for the Missus and she can take over yard switching and transfer runs.
Or you could sell all of your diesels, backdate the railroad to 1940, and buy five or six steam locomotives with DCC and sound and listen to the chuffing as they double-head an 80 car train around your layout. When you start buying diesels, they start to clog up your engine terminal! Then you have too many to keep on your layout and some engines languish in boxes never to see the light of day again! What a shame! Don't even get me started on the three GE units pulling a forty car train... talk about too much power...
Nah...only have 9 diesels. No hidden staging. Everything I own is ON the layout...or its unnessesary !! Kinda like sound...another unnessesary element of model railroading...esp. in N Scale. "Chuffing" I can manage myself...with my COPD !! The only thing a steamer is good for...is a static display in a park or museum...both in modeling and real life.
Hmmm - wonder if they will want to "demo" one of these on the large FreeMo-N layout that will be at the NTS. If so, I will get video (hmm, a PRR going through my San Felipe desert module... why not)
The 'residents' of Jeans Valley dress down and go over to Georgetown to hang out at Lili's Bar & Poolhall. They are all still hung over Only a few 'tourist' are out this early in the morning
I could kiss those guys. The price is higher than I'd like, and I'd really prefer a DC-only option, but still... it's about time somebody got around to it! It even looks like they've got the colors right, unlike on the HO model. Definitely gonna have to scrape some pennies together for this one. Best news I've seen in a long while- when these K4s start flying off the shelves, BLI will almost have to step up and finally get those M1s out the door. Major kudos to Bachmann on this one.
WOW!!! A PRR K4. There really is a God. I was told of the announcement Saturday while attending the Bedford N Scale Weekend by a member of BANTrak. Good thing I was standing next to the men's room. I would like to thank my fellow Trainboard members who stopped by the layout and introduced themselves. Unfortunately I forgot who they were. We met and spoke with people from all over even two guys from Cleveland (Burning River Ntrak) who ate dinner with. There was quite a buzz at the event when the news of the Bachmann announcement circulated. On a down note, I didn't get any pictures because in addition to people's names, I managed to forget my camera also.
John, I have two of the 2-8-4 [now lettered for Baltimore and Ohio]; I am eager to have a home layout again to see them run other than on my test track. I feel you are on target regarding the price the online dealers will ask, certain below the MRSP. I want these 4-6-2 to be successful, so they will do the 2-8-0 with dcc and sound.
Well I just read twelve pages of posts over on TRW. Seems they got word of the release by reading Trainboard. There is the usual Railwire bickering about the "quality" of this offering from Bachmann with half of the people still mired in the past and another quarter of them armed with wrong information. The Kato-phyla's, who are typically western RR modelers, are panning the K4 sight unseen while still claiming Kato as the "premier manufacturer" and the Kato mike as the "Gold standard". Maybe they forget that the "premier manufacturer" doesn't support their offerings in spare parts or that their painting, more often than not, leaves something to be desired. As for the "gold standard" Mikado, the as-delivered model could not pull more than 5-6 cars and the drawbar was so fragile that it would break with even the slightest mishandling. Both required factory fixes. Also the "gold standard" is a difficult install for DCC. Bachmann has always stood by their products. This was true back in the days when they were given the moniker of "Botchmann" and it is true today. Bachmann would always repair or replace a locomotive. You could always get repair parts. Their steam engines, starting with the Spectrum 2-8-0, have been well received. The EM1 is a fantastic model. There was a time when I would not buy a Bachmann locomotive. I took a wait and see attitude on every release up until the EM1. I ordered one as soon as they came out and good thing I did. They sold out pretty quick. I fully expect the K4 to do likewise. We shall see.
The two issues brought up in that thread are running qualities and details or proportions of the model, both of which a totally legitimate concerns. The 2-8-0 and your EM1 are both SPECTRUM line engines, this offering of the K4 is not. The people expressing running concerns are doing so from personal experience with recent non-Spectrum steam releases from Bachmann. As for details and proportions, the 44 tonner, 90 tonner, RS-3 , GP-7 and S4 are all very poorly rendered when you actually start comparing them to the prototype. This one could be as well. You may not care or want to hear about any of this, but it all has very good founding. Jason
