Bachmann’s HO Baldwin 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler steam locomotive offers fine detail at a moderate price

Small enough for most layouts and at home in both freight and passenger service, Bachmann’s new Spectrum line HO 4-6-0 is a well-detailed model of the steam era’s equivalent to the Geep. With detailing that compares favorably to models costing much more, it can stand up to being the center of attention in a one-engine operation.

The manufacturer claims no prototype for this model beyond being representative of Baldwin Locomotive Works designs of the early twentieth century. While its size and proportions reflect that era, its detailing suggests a locomotive modernized in the 1920s or later, that may have run into the 1950s. The locomotive retains the slide-valve cylinders of the era when it was supposedly built, but has more-modern Walschaerts valve gear, electric lighting, and a steel cab.

With 63″ drivers and a narrow firebox carried between the rear drivers rather than above them, it has more in common with 4-6-0s built for freight or dual service than with fast passenger engines. Since I was not able to compare it closely with a specific prototype, I’m listing the locomotive’s major dimensions in the data box on page 17.

Construction
The new Ten-Wheeler, like Bachmann’s HO scale Shay, has a cast zinc alloy boiler and cab. This makes for a heavier engine than one with a plastic superstructure and a metal core. The many free-standing details include appliances and piping molded in flexible plastic as well as wire parts. The cab has a detailed backhead and a crew.

The undecorated model shown includes three alternate parts the buyer may substitute: a cast-metal simulated wooden cab, a plastic footboard pilot, and Andrews tender-truck frames.

The cab may be replaced by removing two screws and loosening the upper ends of the rear handrails. Use care to avoid damaging the piping and railings running into the cab’s front wall.

The boiler may be removed by unscrewing four screws, one between the cylinders and three at the rear of the frame and under the cab. The deck braces must also be removed from the sides of the smokebox. The motor and flywheel are enclosed in a metal housing that fills a cavity in the boiler casting. A cogged belt drives a worm shaft that runs horizontally below the motor, and the worm drives a worm gear on the main (second) driver.

The locomotive picks up current from all drivers by means of phosphor-bronze contacts that bear on the metal tires. All of the wheels (including the tender trucks) are painted black.

For the most part, the rods and valve gear are well-executed in plated metal. However, the valve-stem-crosshead guides on each side slope downward from the valve gear hanger to the valve chests, whereas they should be level and parallel to the main crosshead guides. The eccentric cranks are only slightly eccentric (off center) and would not provide sufficient motion to operate the valves on a real engine.

The tender is mostly plastic, with metal weights, handrails, wheels, and current pickups. The uninsulated wheels are arranged so that each truck picks up current on one rail. Two plugs, one with two pins and one with four, connect wires from the tender to sockets under the cab.

A PC board inside the tender provides constant directional lighting and includes a Digital Command Control (DCC) socket as recommended by the National Model Railroad Association. A jumper plug allows the locomotive to operate on conventional DC.

Performance
The Ten-Wheeler ran a little roughly right out of the box, especially at slow speeds. It smoothed out considerably after about 20 minutes or so of running. Its starting voltage might seem high, but that’s an effect of the constant lighting diodes. Its overall speed range is very good, though its top speed is a little high. The headlight didn’t work on our sample, and the backup light’s LED gives off a bluish glow. (Bachmann will replace any model that doesn’t operate properly, but we’re compelled by deadlines to describe the one we received.)

The 4-6-0’s pulling power is respectable for an engine of this size – it’s not meant to be a tonnage hog. I found that most of the wheelsets were narrow in gauge, but the engine and tender ran smoothly through both Atlas Snap Switches and the handlaid turnouts on my home layout. The wheels are very tight on their axles, so adjustments will require a wheel-puller.

I plugged a Digitrax DH-140 decoder into the tender socket and tried running the Ten-Wheeler on DCC. It performed properly, and function 0 controlled the backup light (the headlight still didn’t work). The lights operate directionally in DCC, with the backup light on in reverse and off in forward motion.

More to come
Bachmann plans to offer then Ten-Wheeler in a low-boilered version with detail variations appropriate to the prototype road names. There will also be two other tenders: a larger type and a smaller, flared-top version that will have an optional fuel-oil bunker.

The Spectrum 4-6-0 is an attractive model and will be at home on many different layouts. It’s especially nice, though, to have such a good engine for small to medium-size model railroads.

HO scale 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler

Price: $175

Manufacturer:
Bachmann Industries Inc.
1400 E. Erie Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19124
215-533-1600
www.bachmanntrains.com

Description:
Spectrum series metal and plastic ready-to-run steam locomotive

Road names:
Painted, unlettered (shown here), Chicago & North Western, and New York Central
(low-boiler versions with specific railroad details will be offered in Maryland & Pennsylvania, Southern Ry., and Union Pacific)

HO Ten-Wheeler data

Dimensions:

• Boiler: maximum diameter over jacket, 71″; jacket diameter at the smokebox, 62½”; smokebox diameter, 62″; pitch (center line above rail), 101″; firebox (outside), 40″ x 109″
• Length: locomotive, 36′-0″; tender, 28′-6″; overall, 66′-6″
• Height: cab, 14′-2″; coal bunker, 11′-10″; smokestack, 14″-5½”; tender water tank, 10′-6″
• Width: cab, 9′-10″; cylinders, 9′-11″; tender, 10′-2½”
• Wheel diameters: drivers, 63″; engine truck, 28″; tender, 33″

Features:
Detailed cab interior and crew
Drawbar pull: 1.76 ounces (equivalent to 25 free-rolling cars on straight, level track)
Engine weight: 9.5 ounces (plus 2.5 ounces for tender)
E-Z Mate magnetic knuckle couplers front and rear (.015″ to .020″ high)
Minimum radius: 15″
Nickel-silver RP25 wheelsets. All but one tender wheelset are narrow in gauge (drivers measure .560″ back-to-back, while the minimum listed in National Model Railroad Association standard S-4 is .566″)
Zinc alloy construction