Bachmann class 150 DMUs

[Class 158 productions]

2 hours ago, fezza said:

The blue also seems too light...

 

So the red, blue and grey is wrong. The logo is wrong. There are detail discrepancies. And they want how much?

 

Wow.

Again this is the problem with the new announcement strategy. Now, I’m not saying return to the policy of old. I don’t want the be waiting 7 years like for the 158, but simple errors like this could’ve easily been snagged or queried. Going this way could result in a lot more simple errors which is a real shame. Although I think they are a record in time for a model from Bachmann. Just over a week from announcement and in stock on layouts? Pretty good in today’s climate. 

[adb968008]

Cast your mind back to 1992.

 

A Lima loco was £20.

A Hornby 3 car 110 could be had for £29.99.

A Bachmann Jubilee was £44.95.

 

Then Dapol came along with what was imho quite possibly the worst rendition of any model of all time…. And at £49.95… I couldnt even call it a class 150/2.

 

Whilst above the chassis its faults were a lack of interior, a class 155 cab, wrong body shape, wrong  length and non- flush windows, below the chassis wasnt much better, but to get there you needed a scalpel to unglue the body, and once inside you found a pod motor, two wheel pickup, no weight (you need to add it yourself) and forget any notion of dcc.
 

The Sprinters never been cheap, but its also never been better, the last one in provincial livery is below, if you dont like the Bachmann one.. feel free to dig out the alternative…

https://www.hattons.co.uk/215583/dapol_d82_sd01_class_150_sprinter_2_car_dmu_in_original_provincial_grey_blue_livery_pre_owned_/stockdetail

 

Its the only model I recall, where a 3rd party company made a conversion kit, to convert it into the model it was supposed to be.

 

i’m going with the Bachmann one myself, it might be 5x more than Dapols 1992 model, but so is the Jubilee, a Hornby Railroad model, a family car and a 3 bed semi.

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by adb968008

[adb968008]

2 hours ago, The 158 Man said:

They certainly are a better model, no one would ever argue about that. But then it should be for the price. 

 

And whichever way people dress it up, the colours are wrong. On the plus side it's nice that Bachmann have used Executive Light Grey this time, on the minus side it's once again too rich/warm, which has been an issue for a long time. In the real world it was definitely more beige than the replacement Regional Railways Silver Grey, but not as beige as this. 

 

The blues are also questionable but better than their previous, brighter releases.

 

I appreciate there's some real nitpicking here, but for the price they want I'll pick as many nits as I want.

 

Has anyone found out what those black bits are on the lower cabside yellow sections? I can't find a picture of one in real life so I'm interested to know what they are.

 

It's also interesting that the manufacturers never supply the clear plastic gangway door cover that the real units have. Never been able to work this out. Of course it's easy enough to add your own but a 'proper' one should be expected in the accessory bag for the price. (Unless it's Hornby, in which case they'd supply either the wrong thing or nothing at all).

 

 

Most of the gripe is about price, so dont buy it if it offends.

 

Minor details can be modified, but the one I have to thank you for in your picture is below the drivers cab window, it appears its carrying a trademark NH Witch depot sticker.

 

i’m interested to see one alongside the regional railways version, they should be the same.

Edited November 13, 2021 by adb968008

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi everyone, 

 

Our Bachmann delivery arrived on Friday and included the 150’s. I was really pleased to see the Regional Railways GMPTE livery announced and thanks to Ron for allocating an extra sound fitted version that I can add to my fleet. Fits in nicely on Morecambe. (just ignore it’s in more current colours) The sound file on these is really good too. The engine start up includes the dimming lights as the engine rattles into life which looks really effective. Plenty of sounds to play with through the various Function keys and has nice engine sounds as it moves off. 

 

Thanks

Mark

 

[TomScrut]

9 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Most of the gripe is about price, so dont buy it if it offends.

 

Or wait until it comes down a bit, I doubt these will all be sold at 15% off RRP.

 

TBH if there wasn't a massive block in one of the cars for the motor I'd not really complain about the price. The issue is it is fundamentally old tooling (regardless of mods for some of the later releases) and so it doesn't have an underfloor motor and the one window bay unlit sticks out like a sore thumb!

[TomScrut]

17 minutes ago, The 158 Man said:

 

It will be interesting to see how long these stick around for. It looks like retailers still have plenty of the Provincial 150/1s left.

 

I was patient with the Northern one and got it at a price more in line with what it was originally ordered for.

[fezza]

14 hours ago, The 158 Man said:

They certainly are a better model, no one would ever argue about that. But then it should be for the price. 

 

And whichever way people dress it up, the colours are wrong. On the plus side it's nice that Bachmann have used Executive Light Grey this time, on the minus side it's once again too rich/warm, which has been an issue for a long time. In the real world it was definitely more beige than the replacement Regional Railways Silver Grey, but not as beige as this. 

 

The blues are also questionable but better than their previous, brighter releases.

 

I appreciate there's some real nitpicking here, but for the price they want I'll pick as many nits as I want.

 

Has anyone found out what those black bits are on the lower cabside yellow sections? I can't find a picture of one in real life so I'm interested to know what they are.

 

It's also interesting that the manufacturers never supply the clear plastic gangway door cover that the real units have. Never been able to work this out. Of course it's easy enough to add your own but a 'proper' one should be expected in the accessory bag for the price. (Unless it's Hornby, in which case they'd supply either the wrong thing or nothing at all).

 

 

Oh dear. More errors. The yellow warning front wraps around too far and the light clusters are picked out in a yellow surround when they should be black. This makes the face of the unit look very odd.

 

Does anyone look at samples before they are approved?

[TravisM]

Decided to get my Bachmann 150/2 in Northern livery out of it’s box to fit a DCC decoder, the dummy couplers and snowploughs.  I have to say that I’m really impressed with the decoration, but I know some will pick holes in it but it passes the 3ft rule for me.

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by jools1959

[fezza]

I genuinely don't understand why so many manufacturers have got logos and colours wrong in recent years - this is by no means the most egregious example. There is so much information in the public realm, so much expertise on the web and so much photographic evidence available, there really shouldn't be an excuse.

 

If these were obscure pre-grouping Midland six wheelers, I could understand it, but 150s have been one of the most common pieces of rolling stock on Britain's railways for the last thirty years.

 

I'd really like a manufacturer representative to come and explain the difficulty. Is it QA in China? Poor research? Lack of expertise in the UK? I didn't mind paying a small fortune for a sound fitted 158 as it was reasonably accurate, but this is poor by comparison...

Edited November 14, 2021 by fezza

[TravisM]

11 minutes ago, fezza said:

I genuinely don't understand why so many manufacturers have got logos and colours wrong in recent years - this is by no means the most egregious example. There is so much information in the public realm, so much expertise on the web and so much photographic evidence available, there really shouldn't be an excuse.

 

If these were obscure pre-grouping Midland six wheelers, I could understand it, but 150s have been one of the most common pieces of rolling stock on Britain's railways for the last thirty years.

 

I'd really like a manufacturer representative to come and explain the difficulty. Is it QA in China? Poor research? Lack of expertise in the UK? I didn't mind paying a small fortune for a sound fitted 158 as it was reasonably accurate, but this is poor by comparison...

I totally agree with you regarding colours and logos but I’m going to throw a but in.  A lot of the early liveries are 25+ years old and a lot of the pictures taken then could have faded with age or had a slight colour change (especially blue), so there could be some ambiguity regarding the models true colours.

 

You also have to remember that a lot of models are seen under artificial light, so again a colour change.  Also, a lot of us oldies struggle to remember colours from the past.

[Roy Langridge]

1 minute ago, jools1959 said:

I totally agree with you regarding colours and logos but I’m going to throw a but in.  A lot of the early liveries are 25+ years old and a lot of the pictures taken then could have faded with age or had a slight colour change (especially blue), so there could be some ambiguity regarding the models true colours.

 

You also have to remember that a lot of models are seen under artificial light, so again a colour change.  Also, a lot of us oldies struggle to remember colours from the past.

Digital imagery will not have faded, and was becoming fairly common 25 years ago. 

 

Roy

[cs233]

On 14/11/2021 at 11:36, fezza said:

Oh dear. More errors. The yellow warning front wraps around too far and the light clusters are picked out in a yellow surround when they should be black. This makes the face of the unit look very odd.

 

Does anyone look at samples before they are approved?

Well spotted indeed more errors in addition to the already substantial list. It is a personal choice and not due to the price but based on the long list of errors I will not be purchasing the GMPTE version.

 

The interior also is a let down, the prototype units had dark blue material on the seats with white dots with a dark brown backrest the inside of the unit is a real disappointment and when you add the motor block it simply becomes overwhelming. The underbody having the technical error concerning the radiator area also is not ideal.

 

Back on the subject of the interior the Provincial 150\2 has the wrong coloured seats they never came from the factory with grey seats. The 150\1 came from the Derby build line with awful multi coloured striped seats. The 150\2 emerged from BREL York on the other hand and had purple seats with a dark coloured back rest.

 

Do not mean to be critical but the person that signed off the decoration for the models seems to have not done substantial due diligence and seems to have minimal knowledge of the prototype which is unusual for Bachmann.  

[fezza]

25 minutes ago, cs233 said:

Well spotted indeed more errors in addition to the already substantial list. It is a personal choice and not due to the price but based on the long list of errors I will not be purchasing the GMPTE version.

 

The interior also is a let down, the prototype units had dark blue material on the seats with white dots with a dark brown backrest the inside of the unit is a real disappointment and when you add the motor block it simply becomes overwhelming. The underbody having the technical error concerning the radiator area also is not ideal.

 

Back on the subject of the interior the Provincial 150\2 has the wrong coloured seats they never came from the factory with grey seats. The 150\1 came from the Derby build line with awful multi coloured striped seats. The 150\2 emerged from BREL York on the other hand and had purple seats with a dark coloured back rest.

 

Do not mean to be critical but the person that signed off the decoration for the models seems to have not done substantial due diligence and seems to have minimal knowledge of the prototype which is unusual for Bachmann.  

I've also noticed the double arrow on the revised provincial unit is too far forward (compare with position of the light blue curve line on the prototype). The errors really are adding up... Basically the serious modeller is going to have to take it apart and do a lot of work with the airbrush.

[Global]

I emailed Bachmann after the announcement to ask if the released images were a sample or the production models because of the odd black squares on the corners of the yellow. I also mentioned the grey looked a bit yellow but accepted it may just be my memory!

 

This was the response…

 

“The livery for this model was produced using original livery diagrams and the grey used is Executive Light Grey as specified for the real units, this matches good quality period photos of the real units when they were first outshopped.”

 

No mention of the squares, so I then asked if those same “original livery diagrams and good quality period photos” showed the strange black squares? I got no further response from them!
 

Make of that what you will!

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Global

[scouse889]

41 minutes ago, fezza said:

I've also noticed the double arrow on the revised provincial unit is too far forward (compare with position of the light blue curve line on the prototype). The errors really are adding up... Basically the serious modeller is going to have to take it apart and do a lot of work with the airbrush.

It’s a real shame to read about all the errors that have been identified on these units. I was really interested in both when they were announced, but given the list of issues coupled with the price Bachmann are charging for them, I am reserving judgment for a while.

 

I agree with all of the comments about the interior lighting versus the chassis block on these units too, the non-lit bay in the driven car looks so out of place and obvious in dim lighting, and it always amuses me to think about the discussions that must have gone on about the retool of this model from the original version - “we could reduce the size of the motor so it only occupies two of the windows in the driving car”; “yes, then we could add a detailed interior to the rest of the car”; “and if we include interior lights it will really highlight the presence of the motor”.
 

As commented by others, I would be very interested to see a picture of the original train set 150/1 in provincial and 150/2 RR versions compared with the new 150/2 provincial. Does anyone have the GMPTE 150/1 and the Hornby GMPTE 142 for comparison as well?

 

[scouse889]

1 minute ago, Global said:

“The livery for this model was produced using original livery diagrams and the grey used is Executive Light Grey as specified for the real units, this matches good quality period photos of the real units when they were first outshopped.”

I would really love to see the “good quality period photos” that Bachmann are referring to.
 

[e30ftw]

Agreed, it seems to be obviously the wrong shade/colour, it would be nice to see how Bachmann justify this.

 

I too would have been intrested in both, but at nearly £300 for a two car DMU with obvious livery errors im out, i guess modelers will vote with their wallet. If they sell out Bachmann wont care about getting liverys correct in the future.

 

 

[Global]

On 16/11/2021 at 13:00, e30ftw said:

Agreed, it seems to be obviously the wrong shade/colour, it would be nice to see how Bachmann justify this.

 

I too would have been intrested in both, but at nearly £300 for a two car DMU with obvious livery errors im out, i guess modelers will vote with their wallet. If they sell out Bachmann wont care about getting liverys correct in the future.

 

 

I agree.

 

I’ve been waiting for the Provincial /2 for ages but I’m not buying it at the current price. The quality is just not there to justify the highest prices being charged. 

 

Those light clusters look like they’re Lima from the 1990s! The whole thing should be black not just a printed flat piece around the lights.

[james-htfc]

5 hours ago, Global said:

I agree.

 

I’ve been waiting for the Provincial /2 for ages but I’m not buying it at the current price. The quality is just not there to justify the highest prices being charged. 

 

Those light clusters look like they’re Lima from the 1990s! The whole thing should be black not just a printed flat piece around the lights.

Glad someone else is picking up on this too. The early WIPAC light clusters on the 66s were fully painted, then they started just painting black on the front. It just looks so wrong!

[cs233]

Held the GMPTE unit at the weekend, the comments about the errors are very evident and valid but what hit me is how much the white stripe stands out. On the prototype it almost blends to some degree to the upper body colour and is not severe on the eye. Due to the upper body being the wrong colour the white stripe stands out significantly and it should not. Was excited when first announced but not tempted unless Bachmann were to supply replacement bodies that resemble the prototype correctly.

 

 

[charliepetty]

On 14/11/2021 at 18:03, fezza said:

I genuinely don't understand why so many manufacturers have got logos and colours wrong in recent years - this is by no means the most egregious example. There is so much information in the public realm, so much expertise on the web and so much photographic evidence available, there really shouldn't be an excuse.

 

If these were obscure pre-grouping Midland six wheelers, I could understand it, but 150s have been one of the most common pieces of rolling stock on Britain's railways for the last thirty years.

 

I'd really like a manufacturer representative to come and explain the difficulty. Is it QA in China? Poor research? Lack of expertise in the UK? I didn't mind paying a small fortune for a sound fitted 158 as it was reasonably accurate, but this is poor by comparison...

If you take the care and researce (which always takes time) it can be done correctly

[lyneux]

Or just do some modelling (if we are sharing 'here's what I did' photos Charlie!).

 

 

[black and decker boy]

Not a 150 but a period image of GMPTE mk2 livery from 1994. I’ll dig out some 150s at weekend.

 

[JDW]

It looks to me like the grey has too much of a hint of brown, whereas it should be much closer to the white stripe below. I saw the Sprinter liveried 150/2 in Harburn Hobbies a few days back before I'd read this, and thought it looked odd, though my initial thought was that the dark blue was too dark rather than the beige, though it's obvious now I've read through here

[dj_crisp]

On 22/11/2021 at 09:35, lyneux said:

Or just do some modelling (if we are sharing 'here's what I did' photos Charlie!).

 

 

 

If only we could have a proper RTR 153 and 155!