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Bachmann Class 158 Status


cs233
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You would need another 'half' of a unit to put on the end.. Thats the best I can explain it, sorry

 

To make a 158/9 you would have to purchase a second unit and split it to insert vehicle three into the set; this may involve electrical coupling issues, I don't know sufficient detail about the specification to offer further comment.

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is Bachmann re-announcing models already announced with the recent listings - or are there yet more models of a livery being done again?

They appear to have announced Sound fitted versions of the Non-sound fitted models and vice versa. Where the Regional Railways 158 was only available with sound before, now you can get it without. Likewise the NSE 159 can now be had with sound as standard.

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, bart2day said:

It seems like for every six months that pass, Bachmann puts it back by six months. I'm sure it won't be here by January 2020. 

At the January press day the 158 was one of the "new" models they said would enter production this year so a Jan 2020 release is quite realistic on that basis once you take shipping times from China into account. Not quite sure how significant the improved model, particularly from a 3ft viewing distance, will be over the previous bar making it simple to fit a decoder to, in comparison to say how the Railtrack 156 is to the Limby one.

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1 hour ago, bart2day said:

It seems like for every six months that pass, Bachmann puts it back by six months. I'm sure it won't be here by January 2020. 

 

Delivery dates governed by the Dandelion Clock "This year/ Next Year / Some time / never"

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I know this annoy others but I’m getting fed up with the constant bitching about Bachmann’s delays.  Every man and his dog know the issues that Bachmann have had with labour issues in China, a factory move and goodness knows whatever problems that we’re unaware of.

 

They will turn up when they turn up but I have to ask, are the people who moan about delays are the same who nitpick that a rivet or rivets a scale 10mm out of place or some other ridiculous comment.

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Delays and slipped timetables are simply indicative of the model railway world. Unfortunately we have to expect them and accept them and no amount of chatter in a forum such as this is going to change the situation. Yes it's frustrating but it is only a toy train after all......

 

Ultimately we all choose how to spend our disposable income and free time - if we don't like it, we can choose to spend it elsewhere!

 

I am sure that Bachmann will not have wanted the 158 saga to drag on for so long, they want to sell models and make a profit after all, but it is best to have the highest quality, most accurate model eventually rather than a sub-standard model that is rushed to the market.

 

I am sure it will be worth the wait...... 

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On 08/02/2019 at 22:05, jools1959 said:

the people who moan about delays are the same who nitpick that a rivet or rivets a scale 10mm out of place or some other ridiculous comment.

 

Quite a comment to be fair, how would you know they are the same people, is this based on any specific evidence? Or just an assumption? What about all the stress a delayed release has caused and all the sick days having to be taken from work to cope with the disappointment and stress of the 158 release being delayed :lol_mini:

 

Please have pity on us poor people who do not have a life and are waiting with immense eagerness to handover our money for this long awaited model.  

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5 hours ago, cs233 said:

 

Quite a comment to be fair, how would you know they are the same people, is this based on any specific evidence? Or just an assumption? What about all the stress a delayed release has caused and all the sick days having to be taken from work to cope with the disappointment and stress of the 158 release being delayed :lol_mini:

 

Please have pity on us poor people who do not have a life and are waiting with immense eagerness to handover our money for this long awaited model.  

 

You misquoted, or selectively quoted him, he actually posed a question (rhetorical maybe, but it's not obviously so): 'but I have to ask, are the people who moan about delays (are) the same who nitpick that a rivet or rivets a scale 10mm out of place or some other ridiculous comment' - so he doesn't assume it's the same people.   

 

Sorry for being a rivet-counter :rolleyes:

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I'm certainly not a rivet counter.

Just disappointed Bachmann seem to continue to announce new products, yet this one in particular seems to slip and slide with no real priority or control.  While I'm not interested in the current 158 model, I don't think even the small (2+ years?) I have been waiting will be worth it, against the current model.

 

I understand smaller companies can get models out quicker as the research guy only has a few products to do, the QC guy only has a few models to check, but perhaps this is where Bachmann has gone wrong - been too greedy and has now ended up spreading their staff too thin.

 

I also understand the production problems... moving factories, other companies within the group taking larger slots... but I'm sure it's down to Bachmann what they announce and when.  Back in 2012, perhaps they thought the process would have been a lot quicker as I believe the problems have been fairly recent? But why are Bachmann continuting to announce "new" models when they already have so much on their plate?  Fear that someone else will do it (we already have a lot of doubles though!)?

 

I mean, builders can build whole houses quicker, car manufacturers can build cars quicker, and mobile phone makers can even make phones quicker than the time it has taken Bachmann to get this to market.

 

Perhaps Bachmann should look at the Electrostar (375-379) family.

Small-ish changes to make other similar classes would give them the breathing space to catch up with everything else.  Or drag the Desiro out and use it as a base to make the other units in the family.

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3 hours ago, Chris56057 said:

Just buy the current model and detail it to get it up to today's standards. With a bit of weathering it certainly looks as good as this new release. 

That rather depends on your standards, but I have just done exactly that detailing up the original model and it was anything but a quick job.  It needs a lot more than a little dirt to get it close to todays standard.

 

There are plenty of detail issues around the underframe, the roof is only correct for the units as built (but they had a lot of modification in the early 2000s fixing the air conditioning), the ends are heavily compromised around the light clusters (which should be behind glass rather than just two holes in black plastic).  Most difficult to fix the bogies are all in the wrong place (look at the yaw dampers, they should align with the mounting points on the body but they are all too far forward.  Its an easy fix on the unpowered end but a nightmare on the cast metal driving end

 

I sorted most of the underframe bits, fitted clear plastic in holes in the ends, then fitted etched WIPAC clusters and new LEDs behind.  bogies aside, I think it should manage to hold its own next to the new model, but it certainly took a lot of time to get there. 

 

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2 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

That rather depends on your standards, but I have just done exactly that detailing up the original model and it was anything but a quick job.  It needs a lot more than a little dirt to get it close to todays standard.

 

There are plenty of detail issues around the underframe, the roof is only correct for the units as built (but they had a lot of modification in the early 2000s fixing the air conditioning), the ends are heavily compromised around the light clusters (which should be behind glass rather than just two holes in black plastic).  Most difficult to fix the bogies are all in the wrong place (look at the yaw dampers, they should align with the mounting points on the body but they are all too far forward.  Its an easy fix on the unpowered end but a nightmare on the cast metal driving end

 

I sorted most of the underframe bits, fitted clear plastic in holes in the ends, then fitted etched WIPAC clusters and new LEDs behind.  bogies aside, I think it should manage to hold its own next to the new model, but it certainly took a lot of time to get there. 

 

 

I'll be very interested to see your efforts :)

 

TBH I gave up on my 158 & 159 project with the hope that the new model will be far better than anything i can achieve. I think my 166 project reduced my enthusiam to take it on. The more you look... the more you see thats not quite right!

 

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10 minutes ago, dj_crisp said:

 

I'll be very interested to see your efforts :)

 

TBH I gave up on my 158 & 159 project with the hope that the new model will be far better than anything i can achieve. I think my 166 project reduced my enthusiam to take it on. The more you look... the more you see thats not quite right!

 

 

I haven't got any photos of the finished item, though if you are a DEMU member Phil Eames has covered sorting the chassis in detail both on the forum and in Update.  

 

Below is the end result on the cab front, I cheated a bit here and bought a 2nd hand shell off ebay (I think from a member on here) that already had the lights cut out saving some effort.  However had already planned the conversion in advance of getting this (and somewhere have my own half finished end which will end up on a 159).

 

Like I say, even with all this work the Bachmann model will still no doubt be better, however in all I have spent maybe 40£ on this project, plus had some decent modelling time.1C7A5847-0A1B-4015-8839-3F9B23795E86.jpeg 

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19 hours ago, dj_crisp said:

Despite being a member I've never succeeded in getting on the DEMU forum - but hey ho I'll keep persisting and emailing access requests

 

Any forum that demands you sign posts with your full name isn't worth bothering with.

Don't really understand why have a silly restriction that a person who intently wants to hide who they are, could just lie...

But then forums like that are clearly just an exclusive old fashioned boys club, which isn't really helping the hobby.

Shame on them!

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On 15/02/2019 at 18:04, Sir TophamHatt said:

 

Any forum that demands you sign posts with your full name isn't worth bothering with.

Don't really understand why have a silly restriction that a person who intently wants to hide who they are, could just lie...

But then forums like that are clearly just an exclusive old fashioned boys club, which isn't really helping the hobby.

Shame on them!

 

Personally, i’d Be in favour of having to use your correct details....

 

it might stop stop some of the toxic posts on here being given from behind anonymous profiles.... to stop people telling lies then they would need to prove their identity before being allowed access...

 

getting back on topic, I thought the exisiting class 158 tooling was reasonable, and from  the standard 3 foot viewing I really wonder how much of an improvement we will see with the new tooling... granted making it dcc ready is somewhat over due...

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On ‎14‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 11:13, The Fatadder said:

That rather depends on your standards, but I have just done exactly that detailing up the original model and it was anything but a quick job.  It needs a lot more than a little dirt to get it close to todays standard.

 

There are plenty of detail issues around the underframe, the roof is only correct for the units as built (but they had a lot of modification in the early 2000s fixing the air conditioning), the ends are heavily compromised around the light clusters (which should be behind glass rather than just two holes in black plastic).  Most difficult to fix the bogies are all in the wrong place (look at the yaw dampers, they should align with the mounting points on the body but they are all too far forward.  Its an easy fix on the unpowered end but a nightmare on the cast metal driving end

 

I sorted most of the underframe bits, fitted clear plastic in holes in the ends, then fitted etched WIPAC clusters and new LEDs behind.  bogies aside, I think it should manage to hold its own next to the new model, but it certainly took a lot of time to get there. 

 

 

I'd be interested in further details / pictures / write up.

 

I'm not saying I'm going to do anything to my own pair (though they need some work to reinstate the lights). But any detailed info on these is like hen's teeth - in the days when they were on sale it was very much a question of "Bachmann's 158s are a huge step forward from anything we've seen" and no detail - let alone prototype info. I know of no drawings or dimensions in print beyond the few in spotters' books

 

If they'd been locos everyone would have been crawling all over them with sharpened hatchets and bottles of vitriol at the ready. But as they were DMUs nobody could be bothered... "Traaaam!" and the spotters' books are laid down...

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