WBB, Please bring back.......

Buy a powered and dummy.....swap one truck on each unit....add jumper wire with quick disconnect....cost about $1 additional. I don't see WbB doing it. The dummy units are going away too....

That was when Jerry Williams owned the company. Bachmann is now at the helm and is doing things quite differently, to include no unpowered or dummy units!

 

Bachmann has two motors in each powered unit and may sell a powered unit and an unpowered unit together until that supply runs out. The claim to fame is that it costs too much to produce an unpowered unit so they are only selling powered units from now on.

 

Lee Fritz

 

The claim to fame is that it costs too much to produce an unpowered unit so they are only selling powered units from now on.

 

Lee Fritz

 

Interesting because this is what Mike Wolf claims too! Notice NO MTH premier Dummy units in the last MTH catalog!

That's interesting that MTH is not making dummy units either.

Lionel's dummies are around $200.00.

 

Lee Fritz

If we're wishing for WBB to bring back anything, I wish they'd bring back their brass line of scale steam engines, at the price I bought my USRA Mikado (<$200)

 

The only dummy engine I had was an Atlas GP9 and I ended up putting PS2 guts in it.

The last time Bachman brought out brass was with Jerry Williams and they were not south of $200, more like $495 and above. They were also junk, lousy drives, lousy motors and no detail at all.  So who would want them And they sure in the heck would not be $495. 

David,

 

I didn't say I bought it new.  The William/Samhongsa brass USRA I just bought (<$200 delivered off E-Bay) last year was ANYTHING but junk.  Don't know what the original cost was and don't care, I wasn't even in O scale when these were first produced.

 

I could have left it as it was and been very happy (once painted as a Seaboard USRA engine), but I wanted an engine that looked like the class Q3 Mikados that Seaboard Air Line owned.  I made some cosmetic mods not fixes, to make it LOOK like a Q3.  I also added PS2 electronics (the original huge motor and drive ran fine in conventional too, now runs even better in command).

 

As far as detail goes, it had (originally) just as good if not better detail as ANY of my Railking/RK Imperial engines do, and not cast-on detail either but separate brass castings.

 

So, I'll just stick with my wish if you don't mind

The cab forward I bought new was a little over $1100. The most I ever spent on a engine. It ran well and had good detail. Had smoke but no sound. This was a long time ago so think what a Williams brass cab forward with sound would cost in todays numbers. Don

Bob - I must jump in here to second your statements about Williams Samhongsa

steamers - I love them. There is a myth that will not die - that Williams brass was

"junk" - brought about by the fact that, as you certainly know, Williams did indeed offer

in pre-Samhongsa days, a couple of Hudsons and Pacifics - plus a set of really good-

looking Sharks - that were fair models (nice boilers) but who's mechanicals were

less than stellar. Treated well, these are OK, really - and interesting as collectibles.

 

Also, I got an A-B pair of Williams brass NYC Baldwin Sharks for the shelf. The paint

scheme is an approximation, and I've never even run them, but that brass Shark

body looks better than the plastic ones, all day long. It's not "thick". 

 

I have a bunch of Samhongsa/Wms brass steamers; many have TMCC installed. Real

adult gearing. My USRA 0-6-0 with ERR Cruise Commander is superb; my Wms brass

USRA Mike with Cruise Commander creeps at Legacy speeds. And my Williams

weathered/upgraded Niagara...sprung drivers...

 

So let this "Williams brass junk" myth continue among those who don't know - it just

means that these -scale- beauties keep showing up on eBay at less-than-RailKing prices.

There's a beautiful scale, brass Williams SP GS-4 out there right now - at $450, buy-it-now, I think. Gosh, I do NOT need another locomotive...

I thought the F3s and F7s always had one unit with two motors. The FAs had a single motor. Starting with the Golden Momories series around 2004 all diesels had two motors in the power unit with the exception of the 44 tonner. All of my Williams are pre Bachmann and all powered units have two motors. I have since added power trucks to the dummy As.

All of this before Bachmann spiked prices. Thank goodness for the secondary market.

 

Pete

The only Williams engines I can remember coming as paired units with a single engine in each were GP-9's.  These engines were definitely pre-Bachmann era.

Frankly, I didn't see the attraction to them then and probably still wouldn't.  Two single motored engines translates to two underpowered engines similar to some of the MPC and early Lionel TMCC GP-9's.

Curt

What I would love to see by WBB is a major league price reduction! Their new online prices are scaring people away from the Williams line, especially me!!

 

I would rather buy a used Crown Edition Williams then the new WBB stuff.

 

Lee Fritz

PLENTY of used Williams on the market......and more entering all the time as folks 'age out'. I buy used and junk and make something good from it....so current prices are not my prime concern. I do agree the MSRP on new WbB seems high for them....but until they make something I HAVE to have....I don't care. I have some MTH GP-30, don't like RS-3.

I share your preference for used Williams at this time.  The GP-30 and the RS-3 don't interest me, and the variety of pre-Bachmann Williams is very appealing.  Even if Bachmann remakes the E-7 with a sound upgrade, but it comes with a much higher price and no dummies, I will stick to the old available variations.  The problem is that certain variations of the E-7, such as Maine Central (which I would like at an affordable price), are becoming quite rare.

Maybe bring back the E-8 diesels or SD-45's.

How about some new roadnames besides major railroads already done?

 

Lee Fritz

I realize that this is all a dream. Might as well dream along. WbB (Bachmann) makes a beautiful GE 70 Ton Switcher in both N and HO. There's quite a few of the diehards out here that sincerely hope that a GE 70 Ton Switcher will be made in O-Gauge.