Bachmann Amfleets Available Now

Hey guys,

I saw the new Amfleets from Bachmann in on of my Hobby Shops last week. They corrected the window spacing but there are allot of issues with the model. The font is too big. They did an ok job on the Acela Regional Cafe car but the Acela Regional Coach has some major issues with the paint job.

Another major issue is that the interior for tha Cafe and Coach re the same. To make it worse, the windows are not that tinted so you can easily see errors. Even the Acela has better interior detail and its widnos are allot darker.

In my opinion there's a different division overseeing the Amfleet production as opposed to the well done Acela. Someone has not done there research.

I don't have any photos available to post but if I find some I will definately do so.

I noticed the paint job seemed a little off when I was down at my hobby shop on Friday (I was waiting for my car to get a radio installed, otherwise I would never go there). It seemed off to me, but I figured it was just bad memory on my part. But for anyone who's thinking about buying the cars it looks like they got the colors backwards, painting most of the car navy with the teal "boobs" not the other way around. In a nutshell, they put the business class scheme on the coaches.

battalion51 said:

In a nutshell, they put the business class scheme on the coaches.

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................and even that they got wrong because that had way too many bubbles on there and located in the wrong place (the smaller ones anyway). One can take 90% Isopropyl alchohol and a Q-tip and lightly rub off the car markings ("Coachclass") and make a decal saying "Businessclass" instead of "Coachclass" and they'll have a rough mock up of the business class car. Just remember that the "Business" portion is white and the "Class" portion is dark blue.

The prototype phase V coachclass has no navy blue in it at all. The bubbles are actually green. Bachmann got the colore completely wrong on this model.

Bachmann sucks at amfleets the only thing I like is the already installed rear lights. Though they did a good job on the acela!

Amtrak Kid said:

Bachmann sucks at amfleets the only thing I like is the already installed rear lights. Though they did a good job on the acela!

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I agree.

But we have to remember that two different divisions were in charge of two different models. Spectrum has shown in the recent years (At least with Amtrak equipment) great care in getting things right. This is part of the reason why the HHP-8 is being delayed.

Silver Series obviously has some issues it needs to work out. It's just unfortunate that Bachmann as a whole has to suffer because Silver Series is a Bachmann division.

Bachmann very first run of Amfleets as far as the side frames were concerned were very accurate. The only issues they had were with the bulkheads and the tooling of the windows (not the spacing).

I think Bachmann changed the initial tooling to resemble Walthers Amfleets in an attempt to snatch up some of the Walthers patrons since Walthers' Amfleets a pretty popular and sell on a frequent basis. I guess they were trying to give modelers an opportunity to blend the Bachmann Amfleets with Walthers'. That issue was a major deterrent with me because I have almost 20 Walthers Amfleet Is and I'd hate to replace all of them with other versions of the car.

Either way, I wouldn't invest in those new cars except for the Acela Regional Cafe car.

Does ANy one make N scale Amfleets?

JP

capltd29 said:

Does ANy one make N scale Amfleets?

JP

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Bachmann is making them in N scale soon I know, in the same phases as the ones being discussed now.

Bachmann has made N scale Amfleets for a while now. I don't think anyone else has. The N scale versions by bachmann looked just like the HO scale versions. The paint was just more glossy on the N scale versions if I remember correctly.

Yeah I got my brother some amfleets to ruin on his ready kit with a Cab/Baggage custom made by yours truly. I took the lighting kits out because they tend to take too much juice from the tracks slowing the loco. They are only $20:00 per car and look good but it's too bad walthers isn't into N scale!