Is Bachmann a bad manufacture? A response to Maybe Train Enthusiast's video

One of the first entries I did on this blog revolved around the discussion of weather Lionel was outpricing their customers or not. Today's response is about a little known company called Bachmann, and a video called "Bachmann is not a bad Manufacturer: Casual opinions with MTE" 

I do recommend you guys watch the video for context, but to summarize it, Maybe Train Enthusiast talks about how Bachmann is over hated, mostly because people still hold a grudge against the company for their less then stellar models in the 80's and 90's. 

I wanna just come out and say that I don't quite have that much experience with early 80's to 90's Bachmann. I don't have any early Bachmann trains in my collection and while I did have a rough experience with my first train set (which was Bachmann's Chattanooga train set), that was more so because I dropped the steam train accidently as opposed to it becoming faulty after a while. 

That said, I do have a soft spot for Bachmann for a couple of reasons, some of which MTE went over in his video. 

 One of them has to do with the fact that Bachmann is still selling and making train sets.  For as overly saturated as the HO scale market is, it really baffles me that Bachmann, Lionel, and Walthers are the only HO scale companies that are selling HO scale train sets. 

Yes guys, I know that model railroading is a niche hobby, but I don't think that's enough of a reason for companies to not sell starter sets. Weather it's HO scale, N scale, or even G, people are more likely to get into it with a starter set, as opposed to buying an engine, enough track to make a loop, and a controller separately (or just adding them all at once into a shopping cart of their choice.) 

I also like how Bachmann's train sets vary from simple train sets with 4 cars and a simple circle loop to train sets that have a large number of cars and 22 radius track. It gives folks an option for what kind of train set they want and for what price. 

Got the money for the Amtrack City Sprinter? More power to you. Just getting into the hobby and want to start out small with a train set that won't break bank? Train sets like the Santa Fe Flyer and Pacific Flyer are perfect for you. 

It's also nice that Bachmann has train sets that are DC only as opposed to all DCC. As much as I love trains that have sound that isn't just the motor as much as the next guy, there's nothing wrong with just a simple DC train set that doesn't have all of that. 

While it's nice that Bachmann is friendly to those who want to start out in the hobby, they also try and win over those that have been in it for a while. 

This is anther point that MTE made in his video, that Bachman's been stepping up their game recently. The Siemens ALC-42 Chargers look great, the Dreyfuss Hudson looks amazing, and while I agree that the streamline cars aren't the most detailed on the market, I wouldn't turn my nose up to them. They still look great and are at a price point perfect for budgeting model railroaders.  

Speaking of budgeting, that's something that Bachman is well aware of. According to MTE, someone from the hobby shop industry told him that Bachmann doesn't want you to buy their trains from them, but instead go to a hobby shop or site and buy them at a discounted price. 

On one hand, this is all word of mouth. On the other hand, selling and giving hobby shops their train sets at a discount is an incentive to go to these shops, especially in an area where again, trains have taken a back seat to things like video games and other tech stuff. 

Even on sites like "TrainWorld" you can find Bachmann's train sets sold at a lower price then what's presented in the catalog. For example: 

And yes I know shipping and handling will rise up the price, but even with that you're still getting a discount. 

A little under $300 for a Hudson? Sounds like a steal to me 

To close out this blog, I wanna state that yes, I'm well aware that Bachmann isn't perfect, but I do agree with MTE that they don't deserve to get as much hate as they do. 

Bachmann isn't like they were in the 80s and 90s, they'll gladly give you some reliable train sets, detailed steam trains, and even a DCC controller which is pretty simple and easy to use for those who aren't so tech savvy in that area, and all for a discounted price if you know where to look. 

MTH's HO scale line (2008-2010 catalogs)

 Lionel wasn't the only "O" scale model train company that would dabble in it's half sized brother HO. MTH electric trains (Mike's Train House) would also go on to have their own Ho line, along side other scales such as Standard, S, and G. 

A little background: MTH was founded by Mike Wolf, who at just 12 years old assembled and sold trains for Williams Electric Trains (which is now owned by Bachmann.) Mike would go on to found MTH and the company went from making reproductions of Lionel trains, to making their own O scale trains. 

In this blog I'm going to go over MTH's HO scale line from 2008-2010. 

While MTH did have an HO scale Brochure in 2005, their Ho scale line really got underway in 2008, with 4 catalogs being released for HO scale. 

MTH's moto was "Trains that do more", and that moto would apply to HO scale as well. HO scale trains from MTH would include sound (bells, whistle, crew talk, and even break sounds), great smoke, and could be operational with other HO scale operating systems. 

The first 4 catalogs of the HO scale line showed promise, with engines such as the Southern Pacific Daylight in her Daylight, BNSF, and Freedom Train schemes, the 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex, the Pennsylvania railroads K4's, and SD70ACe Diesel's. 

In 2009, MTH's HO scale line expanded with more trains, and more cars as well. 

Getting introduced to the line was the Norfolk and Westerns J class with her Powhatan Arrow passenger cars. 

I have to give MTH credit here as I really felt they knocked these cars out of the park. The dark brown color looks good and the cars came with a decent amount of detail on the outside and inside. While I'm glad that Bachman is selling Norfolk and Western streamline cars, I feel MTH's are the more superior. 

The J-class wasn't the only steam engine getting passenger cars, as MTH also offered cars for the Southern Pacific Daylight. 

A part of the fright cars that MTH sold, were action cars, which are box cars that have a screen that moves when the cars do. At the time, no other manufacture was offering these types of cars in HO scale, so this was quite nice to see. 

In their second volume of 2009, MTH continued to offer some great steam locomotives, such as the 4-6-6-4 Challenger, 4-6-4 Empire State Hudson, and 4-6-4 Dreyfuss Hudson. Both Hudson's had passenger cars that could be purchased separately. 

On the Diesel side of things, MTH offered the George H. Bush funeral train. To me this was pretty neat. MTH was also offering the funeral train in O scale, so those who wanted the train for HO had that option. 

Anther thing MTH offered that I thought was neat was an operational crossing signal, complete with track sensors and sound. 

Rounding out the second volume of 2009 was an transformer, and smoke fluid. Some of the smoke fluid options were quite interesting. On one hand you had unscented, coal and diesel, on the other hand you had coffee, eggs and bacon, and even apple pie. 

Coffee was also an choice. 

2010's volume 1 catalog was when MTH brought out the big guns in diesel and electric. For diesel, MTH offered an Union Pacific Veranda Turbine. 

For electric, MTH's debut engine in this category was the Little Joe. 

MTH also introduced Alco PA diesel's in the Southern Pacific and New York Central paint schemes, and on the steam engine side of things had a 2-8-4 Nickle Plate Berkshire. 

Volume 2 of the 2010 catalog had plenty of new things to offer, starting with two big steam engines in the Cab Forward and Union Pacific Big Boy. 

F-7 Diesels were introduced in a variety of paint schemes alongside Alco FA-1 Diesels. 

The Alco PA diesel's from last issue had more paint scheme offerings with schemes from Denver Rio Grande, Santa Fe, New Heaven, Erie, and Delaware and Hudson. 

Finally, there were the train sets. MTH had offered 5 train sets, each with an F3 Diesel that came with a hopper, gondola, and a caboose. 

The sets also came with a remote which I find quite interesting. This was before Lionel had started to package their O gauge sets with remotes, and it wouldn't be until Lionel got back into HO that the scale would see train sets with remotes again. 

Anther thing I'll give MTH credit for is the track. While the track did have a roadbed to it (as is common with most HO scale train sets these days), said track could be removed from the roadbed. 

This is something I wish Lionel, Bachmann, or any other company that sells HO scale train sets would offer again. I like the idea of having a 2-in-1 roadbed or regular track option. 

As mentioned above, there were 5 train sets released by MTH. These were a Santa Fe train set, a Christmas train set, Harley Davidson, Pennsylvania, and M&M's. 

Sadly these were the only 5 sets that MTH offered. While I know MTH's line was going more for the collector who already had the track and power, I still think it would have been nice if they offered more train sets, especially with steam engines. 

Final thing of note about volume 2 was the new streamline passenger cars, which also were flicker free. 

While volume 3 didn't offer as many new things, it did offer up a new electric engine to the HO line, that begin the Bi-polar electric engine. 

While not as big of a deal, MTH also offered some 70-ton Quadruple Hopper Cars for brands like 7-Up and Dr.Pepper, and I just think they're neat. 

Final thoughts: 

I really like how MTH started out their HO line. You could tell the company was serious about it, offering well known steam, diesel, and electric engines in the line, alongside a decent supply of freight and passenger cars. 

Not to rag on Lionel as I know they are currently trying to do a 180 with their HO scale line, but I wish they had taken some notes from MTH. 

MTH came out swinging with the J-class, The Big Boy, and even started sets that had a remote and roadbed track that could easily be converted into non-roadbed track. 

This is a bit of a spoiler alert for the series, but it does make me glad that Scale Trains now has the tooling of MTH's HO scale trains, and judging by the Norfolk and Western 611 they released with those beautiful dark brown passenger cars, I'd say the tooling is in good hands...