Bachmann 4BEP

[andyman7]

40 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Similar reductions at some other retailers.  Posted in the interests of full and fair play.  They are rumoured to be selling rather slowly at almost £500 apiece.  I'm not surprised if that is correct which is unfortunate and doesn't bode well for future units.  

It's interesting that the RRP of the refurbished CEPs was tweaked downwards before release. However, I suspect that the future impact is likely to be reduced production quantities rather than big price cuts.
The model bus market is an indicator, whilst the frenzy of the 1990s has collapsed, the supply of new models (especially of modern buses) is tiny but they sell out, and prices are £50-£80 a model. It's case of matching the market to the demand.

In the meantime, now is as good a time as it will ever be to fill your boots with BEPS and HAPS, but whilst under £250 is a great price for the BEP I can't help recalling that a little over a decade back, prices got as low as £52 for green SYP CEPs (that's how cheap they got at Modelzone at one point). So the fact that the market now treats a green SYP 4 car EMU as a bargain at over £200 shoes that the accepted price points have been somewhat dramatically repositioned..

[Southernman46]

Indeed the 4 original B&G CEP's I've got cost less than a single re-furbished one. Was holding off on one of these but might just pull the trigger anyway - at least that'll mean an industry-wide sale of re-furbished ones quickly after 🙄

[rembrow]

11 hours ago, andyman7 said:

It's interesting that the RRP of the refurbished CEPs was tweaked downwards before release. However, I suspect that the future impact is likely to be reduced production quantities rather than big price cuts.
The model bus market is an indicator, whilst the frenzy of the 1990s has collapsed, the supply of new models (especially of modern buses) is tiny but they sell out, and prices are £50-£80 a model. It's case of matching the market to the demand.

In the meantime, now is as good a time as it will ever be to fill your boots with BEPS and HAPS, but whilst under £250 is a great price for the BEP I can't help recalling that a little over a decade back, prices got as low as £52 for green SYP CEPs (that's how cheap they got at Modelzone at one point). So the fact that the market now treats a green SYP 4 car EMU as a bargain at over £200 shoes that the accepted price points have been somewhat dramatically repositioned..

I'm not sure Bachmann made a wise decision to issue the current versions of unrefurbished 4 ceps, mlvs and even beps. The earlier releases were very sluggish sellers and I bought my two cep sets at a much reduced price. The mlvs were also slow sellers. I recall that Bachmann sent some stock of the second cep releases, back to China, to be reworked as weathered, retaining the same running numbers. So to produce more at plus £400 price seemed madness to me. I've been regularly checking to the price for the beps, was nearly tempted when some retails went sub £300 at around £299, but held off. I no longer pre order Bachmann or Hornby as have found that virtually everything I want is available 6 months later at reduced prices, so have had to cure my fomo anxiety. Recently purchased Bachmann green class 37s and 20s at £50 less than most retailer discounted prices.

I do feel for retailers who have stock on hand when prices fall significantly. With the example of the bep, I don't know for certain but would suspect that Bachmann have made stock available at a heavy discount.

[S&DWatty]

Hi all,I picked up one of the TMC bargain 4 BEPs and have chipped it with a 21 pin Lais 6 fn decoder.  I'm struggling to get the head and tail lights to work properly.  I can get one end only and that is on for both directions of travel.  I was wondering if I could adjust the CVs to sort it out?  

 

As bought F0 is head/tail and F1 is interior lights.  Interior lights work fine and connectivity between vehicles is fine, albeit awkward to rail as others have mentioned.

 

Happy New Year to all.

[RFS]

Head/tail lights are always on for both directions of travel. Later 4-CEPs, for example, have white headcode at the front with a route number, and red blinds on the rear so it's correct that they are always both on.

 

The couplings have two connectors - one contact for F0 and the other for F1. Is the end where the headcode does come on the powered coach? This one is not dependent on the connectors. If it's the unpowered coach then it's possible that one of the connectors somewhere in the set is not making contact. I've had one where the connector got bent when inserting it, so I would check all the connectors are OK.

[S&DWatty]

2 hours ago, RFS said:

Head/tail lights are always on for both directions of travel. Later 4-CEPs, for example, have white headcode at the front with a route number, and red blinds on the rear so it's correct that they are always both on.

 

The couplings have two connectors - one contact for F0 and the other for F1. Is the end where the headcode does come on the powered coach? This one is not dependent on the connectors. If it's the unpowered coach then it's possible that one of the connectors somewhere in the set is not making contact. I've had one where the connector got bent when inserting it, so I would check all the connectors are OK.

Cheers Robert,  yes its the uncovered end that's unlit.   I'll go back and check that the unlit end is correctly connected as its entirely possible that one of the connecting drawbars has a bent pin.  

 

Thanks for the help!

 

 

[S&DWatty]

15 minutes ago, S&DWatty said:

Cheers Robert yes its the uncovered end that's unlit.   I'll go back and check that the unlit end is correctly connected as its entirely possible that one of the connecting drawbars has a bent pin.  

 

Thanks for the help!

 

 

Hi Robert that was exactly as you suspected and an easy 5 min fix!  Thank you and Happy New Year!

 

Regards

 

Dave

Edited December 31, 2023 by S&DWatty

[RFS]

I too picked up the TMC bargain, with the 4-BEP to replace one of my existing 4-CEPs. Very pleased with it until it started intermittently derailing. For better close-coupling I use the class 101 conductive couplings as they're shorter and result in corridors touching on straight track. So I thought at first it was that, but it was always the the same bogie on the CK that was the problem. Removing the bogie to check it out revealed a problem with the pickups as per picture. Once straightened out, all OK!

 

Edited January 3 by RFS
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