The Unicorn

I've wanted a Bachmann 2-6-0 in the green boiler paint scheme for a while now -- if you go back a couple of years, I wrote a post about it. The first one I bought, back in 2023, had a loose driver; I ended up returning it, and have been looking at offerings online ever since.

Last week, one came up on eBay for a not-terrible price, so I finally took the plunge. It arrived today.

It's a handsome devil and runs just as smoothly as the Bumblebee 2-6-0. They may not be the most exquisitely detailed Bachmann On30 locos, but the later production Moguls seem to be great runners. 

One small issue: The bracket that supports the crosshead guides (I think that's the right term) on the left side, is loose. As in, it's in the box, but not on the locomotive. To be fair, the seller did point this out in his description. Again, the loco runs nicely without it, but I can see the possibility that the unsupported guides could get bent or even come off, which would be a pretty big problem. So I'll have to see what it will take to fix it. I have an old Hawthorne Village 2-6-0 that I've been using for parts, and I could pull the valve gear assembly out of that if I need to. Or Bachmann still has them in their parts store. Probably the wrong color, but that's just paint.

Since this locomotive will probably see more use than its Bumblebee sister, I will probably swap the Soundtraxx board into this one. The tender decks are both painted the same, so I'll just swap tender shells, then put that tender behind this locomotive.

I'll letter the tender for L&SE sooner or later, mimicking the D&RGW design. When I get my color printer running, I can print a color decal of the tricolor herald. At the moment, I'm thinking I'll stick with the number 138 on the cab, and if I do, I'll renumber the Bumblebee loco to the 130 series.

9/27/25: I'm working on modifying the tender. I swapped the tender underframe and the Soundtraxx decoder from Engine 27 to this one, and changed the decoder address to #38.

I wanted to save the stock tender shell in case I ever want to switch back, so I'm using a spare shell that I have left over from an old Hawthorne Village engine that I've been using for parts. I used a Cumberland Shops oil bunker and plain headlight. I built a small platform for the light out of some bits of styrene out of my scrap box, and installed a 3mm warm white LED.

I need to get some gloss black paint, then I'll spray the shell black and add the road name. I'd like to also add a three-color herald, but my color printer is out of commission, so that may have to wait a bit.

9/29/25: Here it is with a coat of black paint on the tender shell.

Ill let it dry for a day, and then probably tomorrow after work, I'll start working on the decals.

9/30/25: Road name added on one side. 

10/1/25: Added a black and white logo, just for grins. I think the red, white, and blue version will give it a nice pop of color, but this doesn't look bad 

10/6/25: And here it is with the color herald. I like the pop of color.

Zooming in on the picture, either the herald is oddly out of focus, or the Solvaset caused the ink to run and blur. I need to take a look at it when I get home. Maybe try applying it without Solvaset, or with just one application instead of two.

10/7/25: Pretty definitely the Solvaset. I printed a sign for the mine building, and the same thing happened when I applied Solvaset to get it to settle down over the battens.

I put a herald on the other side, no Solvaset, just pressing it down with a brush, and when it dried a bit, with my finger. No blurring. So lesson learned: The color decals are only going to work on smooth surfaces, where no decal setting solution is needed, or in situations where a little blurring is acceptable.