I have, I think at last count, 35 Bachmann steam locomotives, most from the Spectrum line, and several of the newer regular line.
They include the following wheel arrangements:
4-6-0
2-8-0
2-10-2
4-8-2 Heavy
4-8-4 N&W J
2-8-4 Berkshire (I converted mine into freelance 2-8-2's)
2-6-6-2 (both versions, H-4 and H-5)
2-8-8-4 B&O EM1
I have multiple copies of most all of these. All are good runners and well detailed.
Most are very acurate for their intended prototypes, some are "generic" but still capture the flavor of the road names offered.
Out of 35 locos, several did have problems, Bachmann replaced them no questions asked.
Here is the thing with Bachmann, they make products geared to every "level" of the hobby, from beginner to highly advanced. So not all their products will be the same detail or accuracy level.
As for quality, most of the bad stuff you hear is left over bad experiances from 20 years ago, when they made mainly inexpensive "train set" quality stuff.
That has changed completely, but it did not happen over night, so along the way some items have been better than others.
One big mistake people make is they have a hard time understanding that not every product from ANY company is always the exact same "quality" as some other product from that company.
Again, with Bachmann this is still party true as some items are made for the train set market, some for more advanced modelers.......
But overall, even the train set level products from Bachmann are now reliable from a mechanical standpoint even if they are not the most detailed or accurate models out there.
Also, respectfully, some of the comments above are based on the limited experiances of those individuals, with a limited number of Bachmann items. And some items have been less than perfect. That should not stop you from buying the others.....
I don't have the time to go item by item, even just among steam locos Bachmann has made in the last 15-20 years, but most of their steam locos are good runners and accurate models of their prototypes.
While some are no longer in production, some of my favorites are:
USRA Heavy 4-8-2, offered in several roadnames with correct road specific details.
USRA Light 2-10-2, also offered in several roadnames with correct road specific details.
Baldwin 2-8-0 - originally a Spectrum line model, this loco is now in the regular line. It is "generic", but very well detailed, runs good and is typical of large modern (1920's) 2-8-0's seen on roads like the B&O, WM, and many others.
2-8-4 Berkshire - this locomotive from the regular line is relatively new, introduced maybe 5 years ago, and is very close to the Spectrum line in details. It is offered with road specific details for the three roads offered and is actually more correct for some of those roads than the expensive MTH model. It can use a little weight, which is easily added, but is a great looking and running loco for the much friendlier price.....as I said, I built Mikes out of five of these:
USRA/C&O 2-6-6-2 - these excellent little guys were big stars on the C&O and these models do them full justice. I have five......
Many of the locos no longer in production can still be found "new old stock" at very reasonable prices.
My disclaimer - I run DC, I don't use DCC or sound, if my locos came with decoders, they are long gone now. Yes, Bachmann used/uses "basic" DCC decoders for the most part.
Welcome and best of of luck,
Sheldon
