Bachmann 2017 range

[60027Merlin]

The disappointing sales figures for the Jubilee can be attributed to the fact that Bachmann only produced new tooling for the short firebox variant which was 101 in number out of a total of 191 in the class.

 

The other 89, discounting Windward Islands which was scrapped after the Harrow crash, are of the long firebox variant and remain missing. It is yet another disappointment, this time for those who model either the North of England and Scotland, as they were the common Jubilee type running there. With just under half of the class not produced as a model it was guaranteed not to achieve the full sales potential.

[Leander]

Not just the Jubillee, the 75xxx was also completely retooled and had disappointing sales although that had to compete with the Hornby version as well.

The problem with the Jubilee is that Bachmann's representation of the 'new' straight throatplate body is not the best and may have put off more than a few prospective purchasers.

 

In particular the taper of the boiler looks like it's had a bit too Xmas pudding!

[John M Upton]

Whilst I suspect those who have taken time to upgrade and detail the Lord Nelson into something a little less primitive may welcome just a chassis upgrade, in reality the only positive thing Bachmann could do with the existing tooling is open it up and put a sledgehammer across it before starting again.  Any new chassis only will still command a ludicrous price like was seen with the Ivatt 2-6-2T tank, that latter of which I am expecting the announcement of a new body (and a Standard 2 Tank to go with it) in the not too distant future.

[MikeParkin65]

The Jubilee was what caused Bachmann to go down the 'Chasis only' revamps in to first place.

 

In short, lots of modellers were very vocal about the perceived inadequacies with the previous Mainline body. As such Bachmann retooled both the body and chassis - however in contrast to all the noise created before release, sales of the new Jubilee model were actually pretty disappointing. Therefore Bachmann concluded it wasn't financially viable to do the same with the likes of the V2 etc and they would only upgrade the chassis.

 

Given Bachmann are a business - not a charity, and must respond to market realities rather than frothing and hype, their chassis only upgrade plan is a perfectly reasonable response, particularly given the production difficulties they have experienced of late.

 

As such all those calling for a totally new manor or 43xx should  be aware that having been caught out once by the Jubilee, Bachman are hardly going to be in a rush for history to repeat itself and no amount of frothing will change that.

Do you have evidence that the Jubilee is a slow seller? I ask because it has been in pretty regular production since its rerelease and maintains its 2nd hand price as well as anything. Its a fine model that runs well (tender pickups would be a plus though) and the chassis has also found use with the original Patriot model and presumably will be used with the planned 'new chassis' parallel boiler Scot. I would have thought the only disappointment for Bachmann would be losing the rebuilt Scot and Patriot with Hornby taking those on.

[locoholic]

 

As such all those calling for a totally new manor or 43xx should  be aware that having been caught out once by the Jubilee, Bachman are hardly going to be in a rush for history to repeat itself and no amount of frothing will change that.

I don't agree with this at all. There are several versions of the mogul that the old Mainline tooling never catered for, so there's only a bit of repetition, and if there is room in the market for a Hornby King and a DJM/Hattons King, then a DCC ready Manor that actually looks like one should be no problem.

[Budgie]

I think Bachmann ought to start selling DCC printed circuit boards as used in their latest pannier tanks, so that we can retro-install them into their older pannier tanks rather than having to solder decoders direct into the locos.

[Andy W]

But surely the wires from the pickups are soldered to the board that holds the capacitors on these earlier Blue Riband series panniers, and in turn there are soldered connections from the capacitor board to the wires leading to the motor. So to remove the capacitor board from the earlier models you need to unsolder the four soldered connections, or cut the wires.

 

From this point it really makes little difference - if you fit a new board with a decoder socket, you're going to need to solder the four wires to the new board. If you hardwire a decoder, you're going to need to solder the four wires to the wires coming out of the decoder.

You're still going to have to read the instructions to find out which wires connect to where. There's no easy fix. Maybe Bachmann could sell a package of a new board, new motor, and new pickups all ready soldered together. How many would they sell, and how much is it likely to cost, given that they don't assemble the models that way?

[Roy Langridge]

But surely the wires from the pickups are soldered to the board that holds the capacitors on these earlier Blue Riband series panniers, and in turn there are soldered connections from the capacitor board to the wires leading to the motor. So to remove the capacitor board from the earlier models you need to unsolder the four soldered connections, or cut the wires.

 

From this point it really makes little difference - if you fit a new board with a decoder socket, you're going to need to solder the four wires to the new board. If you hardwire a decoder, you're going to need to solder the four wires to the wires coming out of the decoder.

You're still going to have to read the instructions to find out which wires connect to where. There's no easy fix. Maybe Bachmann could sell a package of a new board, new motor, and new pickups all ready soldered together. How many would they sell, and how much is it likely to cost, given that they don't assemble the models that way?

 

Whilst I agree in principle, most Bachmann locos that I have do not have soldered wires - they are attached using plastic clips with the stripped wire pushed through a hole.

 

As such, assuming that the wires are long enough (big assumption I know) a new board could be fitted without the use of a soldering iron.

 

Roy

[robertcwp]

Do you have evidence that the Jubilee is a slow seller? I ask because it has been in pretty regular production since its rerelease and maintains its 2nd hand price as well as anything. Its a fine model that runs well (tender pickups would be a plus though) and the chassis has also found use with the original Patriot model and presumably will be used with the planned 'new chassis' parallel boiler Scot. I would have thought the only disappointment for Bachmann would be losing the rebuilt Scot and Patriot with Hornby taking those on.

The Jubilee sold well to me - I have three of them.

[Flying Pig]

The disappointing sales figures for the Jubilee can be attributed to the fact that Bachmann only produced new tooling for the short firebox variant which was 101 in number out of a total of 191 in the class.

 

The other 89, discounting Windward Islands which was scrapped after the Harrow crash, are of the long firebox variant and remain missing. It is yet another disappointment, this time for those who model either the North of England and Scotland, as they were the common Jubilee type running there. With just under half of the class not produced as a model it was guaranteed not to achieve the full sales potential.

I've taken to visiting RMweb whenever the relentlessly joyful events of the wider world threaten to induce a manic episode and it's posts like this and the one following it that provide the bracing dose of negativity that keeps me grounded.

[robertcwp]

The long firebox Jubilee was in the 2016 wishlist poll and received 132 votes, making it middle polling. The Ivatt 2-6-2 tank was also in because the body tooling is pre-2000 and that received 133 votes. Overall top of the poll with 443 votes was the BR Standard 2MT 2-6-0 with 443 votes.

[Mad McCann]

In the meantime, this has reminded me that it's possible to graft a Brassmaster sloping throat plate boiler on to the Bachmann model. I'm also reminded that I have both said boiler and model sitting in a corner waiting for just this process to take place.

Since 2008...

 

Dave.

[MikeParkin65]

In the meantime, this has reminded me that it's possible to graft a Brassmaster sloping throat plate boiler on to the Bachmann model. I'm also reminded that I have both said boiler and model sitting in a corner waiting for just this process to take place.

Since 2008...

Dave.

You better get cracking so that Bachman can announce said model just as you've finished

[locoholic]

I've taken to visiting RMweb whenever the relentlessly joyful events of the wider world threaten to induce a manic episode and it's posts like this and the one following it that provide the bracing dose of negativity that keeps me grounded.

Funniest thing I've read for ages.

[phil-b259]

Do you have evidence that the Jubilee is a slow seller?

 

Not personally - I believe that it was Bachmann themselves that said it was when they announced the first of their 'chassis only' revamps.

[joejab95]

I'm hoping for something modern. I was disappointed the 319 was only announced for N gauge last year, hopefully it might be up scaled for 00!

 

As others have already said, I hope we get to hear about any progress on the 90, 158 and mk2f carriages.

[Budgie]

I'm hoping for something modern.

Me too. A class 375 or 377 would be nice for starters.

[bart2day]

Me too. A class 375 or 377 would be nice for starters.

Me too! Class 377/375/387 would be a dream come true for me as they are so common in southeast and London and are my favourite EMU.

 

Class 319 upscale would be nice too. Although I hope they work on the backlog of class 158/166/170 that were announced what feels like an age ago.

[John M Upton]

Electrostars?  At £400 plus a set?  Never going to happen.

[Mark Saunders]

Electrostars?  At £400 plus a set?  Never going to happen.

Drax Biomass hoppers at £85 each! Plenty sold to those who want them!

 

Mark Saunders

[Clive Mark]

Do you have evidence that the Jubilee is a slow seller? I ask because it has been in pretty regular production since its rerelease and maintains its 2nd hand price as well as anything. Its a fine model that runs well (tender pickups would be a plus though) and the chassis has also found use with the original Patriot model and presumably will be used with the planned 'new chassis' parallel boiler Scot. I would have thought the only disappointment for Bachmann would be losing the rebuilt Scot and Patriot with Hornby taking those on.

 

I can remember Dennis Lovatt of Bachmann explaining to me that the new Jubilee sales had disappointed them and this is the reason why they prefer doing completely new locos. It was also the reason he gave me for not having done the Maunsell U so far though he did not rule it out. We will have to hope. I think a really well done Maunsell U would sell ok to fanatics of the Southern and other modellers. They have the tenders already tooled from the N and the chassis block is basically the same ....bigger driving wheels to be done for the U with splashers to accommodate !

[Clive Mark]

I don't think there's been any news yet but, just in case I have missed something, has there been any details about timescale for the reworked J72 yet? I imagine it's still a 'TBA', a long way in the future.

 

Cheers

It seems rather a lot of Bachmann is TBA .....and has been for a very very long time....and may be for another very very very long time !

[Clive Mark]

The irritating thing about the Maunsell U is that it has only been done in kit form by Jidenco/Falcon Brass and DJH. As with the rest of DJH it is a terribly dated kit and not available anymore.

 

There seems to be a curse on this poor but good engine!

 

I'm particularly keen as they were used a lot on the Didcot Newbury Southampton.

 

I do not care whether Bachmann or Hornby do it as long as they do it really well. Hornby generally seem to have the edge on finesse these days.

[wombatofludham]

Electrostars?  At £400 plus a set?  Never going to happen.

 

...except everyone assumed there wouldn't be a rerun of the Blue Pullman and look what happened.

 

If the right emu was announced (Class 310 or 323 for me) I'd stump up even if it reached £400.

[grahame]

...except everyone assumed there wouldn't be a rerun of the Blue Pullman and look what happened.

 

If the right emu was announced (Class 310 or 323 for me) I'd stump up even if it reached £400.

 

Yep, I'm keen to see the promised N/2mm Thameslink 319 completed and launched. I expect it won't be cheap (nothing popular is these days) but it won't stop me purchasing quite a few sets.

 

G.