4mm scale Modelling Review - Bachmann Class 159 New Version 2020
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| Bachmann’s new version of a Class 159 diesel unit (Network SouthEast
livery 31-520) became available in May 2020. The new version 158/159s
were announced in May 2012 so we have been waiting a long time for
them. Has the wait been worth it? To get the elephant in the room out
at the very beginning – the price. This new 159 is 345% more expensive
than the NSE 159 sold for in 1998. Over this period inflation in the UK
(according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator) has been 77%.
Whilst this model is undeniably an improvement justifying some increase
in price, and for well documented reasons model railway inflation is
running above general inflation, is this model worth such a large
increase in price? This is something for each prospective purchaser to
decide and only time will tell if sales of this model are a success.
However, the price militates against buying multiple numbers of these
models and is not running more than one unit what multiple unit
modelling is all about? Ironically one useful new feature of this model
is a working scale coupler on each end allowing multiple operation
without modification. |
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| Bachmann’s Class 158 models of 1996 and the subsequent Class 159
model were state of their art for their time, were (and still are)
popular and highly regarded. Their strong features are a well detailed
flush-glazed body and a powerful 8 wheel drive from a centrally mounted
flywheel motor on a heavy alloy chassis. The detracting issues are that
the drive took up the entire interior of one car and the windows are
tinted to obscure, there is no working coupling on each end, the
underfloor detail is finely moulded but cast as a block, the directional
lighting is basic and it is not easy to install a DCC decoder. |
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| Given the price and having compared the pre-production sample on
display at exhibitions with older versions running on layouts at the
same exhibitions I decided that only buying models in liveries I did not
already have is justified. As a result my first purchase was a Class
158 in GWR green. This usefully displays a destination of Bristol
Temple Meads so could be a short working from Portsmouth Harbour. In
recent times GWR have used 3 car 158s on the South Wales – South Coast
route but the price of this model counts against buying second model to
split and provide the third driving car. |
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| On inspecting and running my GWR 158 I was most impressed by the
very well detailed underfloor mouldings – which are separate items – the
visible interiors, the flexible lighting options for both DC and DCC,
the ease of fitting a DCC decoder (Plux22 type which fits behind a
removable part of underfloor equipment), an installed loudspeaker if you
are into DCC sound and the sprung working scale couplers on each end.
This new version has a small five pole motor and flywheel driving both
axles of the inner bogie via a cardan shaft in each car. In addition
each car weighs substantially less than the previous version. The
result is an absence of the pleasing smoothness and inertia exhibited by
the previous version. Of course DCC users can programme their chip to
replicate inertia but this does not help DC users. I only test ran my
model for about twenty minutes but I found it to be noisy, growling not
unlike the real thing. If it were not for the absence of ticking over
sounds I cannot see the reason for DCC sound! Also it did not sit on
the rails nor run well straight out of the box. I found this due to one
of the axles in each unpowered bogie not being seated correctly in its
axle boxes. From comments I have read this appears to be a common
manufacturing or transit problem, though it is easily and quickly
fixed. The cars are joined electrically and mechanically with a 14 pin
latching coupler. Whilst better than other types of electrically
conducting couplers I did not find it particularly easy to couple the
cars together and great care is required to avoid bending any of the
pins. I would not want to couple and uncouple the cars too many times.
Coupling is best done with the cars on their sides (body paintwork
suitable protected) and then rolled onto the track as a complete unit. |
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| Whilst the body side, end and roof moulding is a bit finer I put in in
my “not so much as you’ll notice” category. However, I subsequently
went against my purchase policy and also bought the Network SouthEast
159. I noticed more finer detail on this lighter livery. Being a
Southern fan I like my trains green, but not the GWR green. This
horrible dark green appears to obscure some of this model’s bodyworks’
finer points. Having bought the 159 I can inform you that the centre
MSO car is unpowered but I have not yet done sufficient running to
establish if this renders the unit under-powered. The destination of
the class 159 version is London Waterloo. If South West Trains and
South Western Railway versions are to follow (my preference is the
latter because I already have the earlier SWT version) we had better
start saving. However, given Bachmann’s lead times we might have a long
time in which to save. |
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