Bachmann re-release of Doodlebug in HO

So I happened to glance at Model Railroader this month and saw a review for the re-released Bachmann Spectrum gas-electric... what caught my attention was the TRAILER!

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/ ... uctId=1879

It's a great stand-in model for NYC commuter heavyweight coaches! Anyone know if Bachmann is releasing the "trailers" just on their own?

The trailer coach is an upgraded version of their spectrum line Heavy Weight coaches that they had full sets a few years back.
The Steam passenger starter set (Spectrum) had these coaches.
The Coach it self is a close model to the PRR P70 coach. Not exact but a good stand in for those not detail crazy.
If they do the coaches in PRR I would buy some.

They got the paint and number series correct for a series of ACF coaches the NYC ordered in the 1920s, so it's good enough for me...

I'm still trying to track down the Rivarossi 60' NYC coach sets!

-otto-

Otto, you're right about the coach. Just get TWO of them with a Ten-Wheeler in the front and you've got a great stand in for a Putnam Division train.

D/

Dieter wrote:Otto, you're right about the coach. Just get TWO of them with a Ten-Wheeler in the front and you've got a great stand in for a Putnam Division train.

D/

That was my thought. I'm too cheap to spring for Branchline Models exquisite Pullman kits. The Rivarossi 60' combinem bag, or RPO would be perfect, too.

And Bachmann's model of an early EMC doodlebug is great, but I really wish someone would do a Brill design!! The Brills seem like they were much more common than the EMC's...

-ott-o

Just a couple of thoughts re Bachmann's re-issue of its dooblebug.

Firstly, I really wish they had chosen a truly bi-directional car. The model of their lead/power car represents one with a control station only at one end, which was far from common on the smaller lines that typically employed dooblebugs as a means of curbing passenger service costs. In the re-issued version, with a trailer, short of application of some class 1 lines, the model doesn't make a lot of sense for the kind of operations the typical hobbyists' layout really calls for in a doodlebug. Walthers' doodlebug (issued maybe 8-10 years ago?) was much more appropriate in both size (shorter) and design (bi-directional), but the model's drive system wasn't even second class!

Then, too, price for Bachmann's new DCC version is, at least to me, way over the top. I simply don't regard the little DCC computer boards in these engines as honest adding upwards of $100 to the price of a unit. When I purchased my DC version a while back I paid about $35 for it and that trailer car could be had for about $20. I've got to say that a certain faction of folks in the hobby today have totally lost contact with reality when it comes to paying what they do for latest items.

CNJ999

Being the owner of an out-of-service Suydam Brill model 350 that tumbled to a concrete floor, I agree with the desirability of the Brill double-end car model.

I know that Brill itself also offered lightweight trailers. It would be interesting to have such a trailer which could be modified (no prototype to my knowledge) for two-car push-pull operation. Some rail motor cars were still in service when U.S. push-pull train operation came into being some 50 years ago; so "it could have been".