The shell is a bear to get off. Lots of electronics considering the decoder is hard wired to an 8 pin NMRA socket.
Rear worm at full rotation. Front Pilot I ran it on DCC. Motor control is very good. It will crawl a tie at a time. It is a little noisy but not horrible. It just sounds heavy, which it is. It ran around 11" Kato test track with no problems. I can see why Bachmann made the pilot part of the truck. On an 11" radius, the coupler is inline with the corner of the porch. No way this thing would survive on the average layout without the pilots pivoting. Besides, it looks better than the HO solution, a huge slot. I would like to give a pulling power report but the stupid dummy couplers kept pulling apart from my lead car with only 25 cars in tow. The lights look good although the beacon is not controlable, at least that I could find. F1 dims the lights, F0 turns all lights off, including the beacon. The trucks need some sort of weathering. The silver paint makes the details that are there disappear. Keep in mind, this is a standard line loco. I think it looks pretty good. It won't make the purists happy but I bet it will put smiles on the avearge customer.
You think this is long in your scale, I seen someone scratch build one of these in G scale 1:29 scale ratio, now that was big and long. It needed 20ft diameter curves to go around.
I have never had hands on with the older versions but from pictures, no this is an all new shell. It is pretty crisp tooling.
That looks nice, can't wait to get mine. I know some will complain about the level of details, but this is a $100 locomotive. To me, that's about as much as I'm willing to pay for a loco. I can do without the wire grab irons.
Tony and all tuned in, Dang it...now I've got to have one. That is defi-nut-ely not the same old Bachmann $#!+. It is apparent, by looking at the front, this has been retooled. Can I ask a big favor? Now a favor is something you can say NO to. Could you park it next to an Atlas GP 35 and shoot it for us, we, me and I? A picture comparison would be worth a thousand words. The drive is obviously retooled and looks like they've upgraded the motors. What is this? Am I going to have to take back everything I ever said about Bmann? Could be. No not totally, not about the stuff from the past...I can assure you. But, I say, I ask, is this what we've all been waiting for? Stay tuned to see what I happens next. I hate eating humble pie. Unless...our hopes, wishes and rants has finally paid off and it's finally happened. We shall see. Have fun!
It looks like the fuel tank has a cut out for a round speaker. Or is that just my imagination? Rick, Don't let the pics make the choice for you. As skipgear said it has already shown a problem with the coupler. Probably a quick fix with a MT change out. I think it is a good looking model too and it will probably sell very well. Another question - is that the same motor that is in the 44 tonner? Eric
Sound - Yes it has a speaker mount in the fuel tank with a grille cut in the bottom already. It looks to fit a large oval speaker, similar to HO units in size. Motor - This seems to be the new go-to motor for Bachmann. It has been in the H16-44, Hvy Mountiain, 44T and now this x2. The pilots appear to be removable for those that want to try to make a fixed pilot.
They were basically two GP40's joined back to back. Anyone that has new and old units, how do they compare in size? The old units always seemed a bit oversize to me which was typical of Bachmann diesels of old, though I must admit I've never taken a scale rule to one. They can be had for around $80, not bad for a dual motor unit with decoder when you think about it.
so the set up was basically back to back with a cab on both ends then remove one cab:thumbs_up: anybody have a spare spectrum body??
Now, my next question is will the DD40, run with the Atlas and/or Kato locomotives operating on standard DC...without one trying to pull the others? Also, sort of a second request. Can we get a picture of what it looks like parked next to any of the Kato or Atlas locomotives? Ok, so I'm impatient. I haven't been this excited over a Bmann piece of equipment in a long time.
Speed - It should probably be close to an Atlas slow speed motored loco. Start up may be an issue on DC because of the start up voltage difference but mid throttle on should be fine. More pictures - Sorry, it is back on the shelf at the shop, besides, I don't own any Atlas GP's. My extent of post transition era diesels are SD40-2, SD40-T2, SD70M and SD45. Remember, I'm a steam guy. The only modern diesels are for my son's Indiana and Ohio N track train.
Thank-you Tony for the indepth review and pictures of the Bachmann DD40AX. For me... I will probably pass on this offering. However... If Bachmann creates a Spectrum model with certain improvements (fixed pilot with better coupler) and onboard sound... I might reconsider. This looks like a very good lower end model and should make a lot of UP modelers happy. I normally don't buy UP models EXCEPT the large unique engines UP was known for such as this one, Big Boy, Gas Turbine etc. There was some scuttlebutt that another manfacturer might do a Gas Turbine Electric (aka:GE 4500 GTEL Standard & Veranda Turbines).
Thanks Tony Tony, Thanks for sharing the pictures and giving us some insight. It looks good however, I do agree with Calzphyr. I will probably pass. I would honestly prefer to see Kato or Atlas put together the original DD 35 cab and cabless and the DD40 as it originally came out.
I think you will be waiting an awfully long time for either Atlas or Kato to do this. My 5 year old may be out of college and living in his condo on the moon before it happens. I don't have a dog in this fight because it is not a loco I would buy no matter how good or bad it is. It doesn't really excite me, it's just a diesel anyhow.:tb-wink: I think this is as good as it's going to get unless you want to search and shell out $600+ for the brass unit. Maybe this could be my next Bachmann detail project....naaahhh!
I would like to give a pulling power report but the stupid dummy couplers kept pulling apart from my lead car with only 25 cars in tow. [/QUOTE] *LMAO* SO you make the largest diesel out there that should pull a 100 car train and you put a crap coupler on the thing that can only pull 25 cars. Bachmann typical QC.
