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.
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