Worth the Price? Bachmann Sound Fitted Class 37/0 'Loch Lomond' in BR Large Logo Blue - Review

[@cbrooks122000]

I just love my Accurascale class 37. The sound and its best feature the "stay alive" fitted, I have two of them. I find it is brilliant for rescuing locos stuck in tunnels and cleaning the track with my Dapol cleaner as it powers over any dirty track. I also think Accurascale should be rewarded for not jumping on the Hornby/Bachmann bandwagon for ever increasing prices and providing value for money. Hopefully Bachmann and Hornby are beginning to get the message.

[@dafyddthomas7299]

agree - hope A/Scale do more 37 production runs, not all agree with me; for A/Scale to do their own detailed version of 85,86,87 and HST ( long term ) + rest of Mk 2 and MK 3 coaches.

[@marcblackman7372]

The bogie chains are not for attaching the bodies to the loco. They're part of the hand brake mechanism. They fit between a moving arm and the centre brake chamber on the bogies. Chains were used instead of a fixed link so that the hand brake would work even on a curve. Hope that helps.

[@andrewmeah3082]

With the Accurascale class 37 you can remove the body without worrying about the chainsas that are attached to the chassis also with dcc fitting a removable panel on the roof makes it so much easier than the Bachmann class 37.Also all accurascale class 37s get a stay alive fitted with all models which Bachmann does not do so for me I would go with the Accurascale class 37 ecverytime for value for money although the Bachmann class 37 new tooling is a very good model I think its more to personal preference

[@dafyddthomas7299]

agree - hope A/scale do more production runs of class 37 - only manage to pick up DRS livery version A/scale but had a Bachmann Class 37 in intercity executive livery

[@russellbenton2987]

Model Rails Direct had them for £125 , even better ! Thanks for explaining the difference between the older 37 and new one , especially with regard the cab door . I hadn’t realised that before

[@BobbyNomad]

Just lost all the comment I have just taken 25 minutes to write just because I hit the "gronk it up button because I wanted to know what it was all about. Can't be bothered to re- write it again Jenny. Good informative video.

[@trapdriver7006]

Hi Jenny an excellent review of the Bachmann class 37 it looks and sounds great.I have two Accurascale class 37 s which are excellent and I agree with you now the prices are equal either 37 would be a good choice.I dont have a Bachmann 37. Fitting DCC to the Accurascale 37 is easier as you remove the roof section to gain acess to the DCC socket also they have stayalives which I like in locomotives so if I need another 37 it will be the Accurascale 37 although I could be persuaded if it was a livery I like.

[@grahamfriend5861]

Hi Jenny, here’s a suggestion; Buy your friends at TMC’s Bachmann’s Class 37043 DC for £146.98 & Buy Kernow’s body of 37012 Loch Rannoch (£49.99) and you’ve got two (latest) loco’s effectively for under £200..! Now that’s modern BR modelling at a reasonable price..!👌 Thought you might like to share this..!🤔 The modeller can then decide whether to sound chip or not and with the speakers already fitted, Roads & Rails and others are a got upgrade option..!👌✔️👍

[@Elvinley]

One amazing feature with the Accurascale 37 is the flange squeal that stops when the loco is on straight track. No idea how they did it!

[@tonyrobinson362]

Magnet on top of the bogie connected to the chip.

[@tonyrobinson362]

Jenny you can unclip the chains on the Bachmann 37 unlike the Accurascale 37.

[@peterbradford5987]

Hornby need to make models of this quality.

[@ianmacaulay4936]

Hi Jenny, nice comparison. A couple of comments. I dont have a Bachmann 37, but I did recently purchase the sound fitted 47 (model 35-410SF). This too had a ridiculously loud volume. CV 63 was set to the default 192, so I changed that to 064 which brought the sound to a much better level. I imagine that the 37 would be the same. For me however the stayalive is a a real deal breaker. Comes as standard on the sound fitted accurascale models, but not on bachmann. The cheapest you can buy is maybe £20 or £30, so you have to factor that into the price comparison. However on bachmann I believe that there is no plug and play for stayalive, you have to solder it to the decoder. The bachmann 47 came with no information on the decoder whatsoever, but even if I could identify which solder pads to use they are way too small for my soldering skills, and would instantly invalidate any warranty. I had a bad experience a couple of years ago with a new bachmann class 03, kept cutting out even on brand new straight track let alone point work, which meant that even when you got it going again (hand of god) the sound would need to be reenabled from the controller. Very tiresome.

[@MikeParkin65]

Why would you need stay alive on a loco of this length and weight with 6 wheel pick up?

[@ianmacaulay4936]

@@MikeParkin65 Hi Mike, good point, maybe most people would not need stay alive on a long wheelbase multi pickup loco. In my case I have no frog switching on my points (I use home made servo motors to switch my points at approx £7 per motor, compared to ~£20 for a tortoise or equivalent, so they have no built in switches), and the entrance to my yard has a ladder of eight consecutive points, so plenty of opportunity for stalls there. I have an original hornby class 50 which used to stall on the points until I removed the awful traction tyres and I had a bad experience with the bachmann class 03 which would stall everywhere. And when it did stall the dcc decoder would lose the lights/sounds settings, so once it got going again you would have to reenable them everytime from the controller. Right now many of my locos with no stay alive are fine, but I imagine that as they age and the track deteriorates things might get worse. So if possible I would always favour a loco with stay alive over one without. I applaud the accurascale approach of integrated stay alive, for them to add it (its just a capacitor) must cost them very little, as opposed to the £20-£30 we would have to pay for an after sale fitting, which also comes with practical difficulties and warrenty issues.

[@BobbyNomad]

WE all know the Bogie chains were not for attaching the body to the Bogie Mark. Jenny was talking about the fact that ON THE MODEL it might make it awkward to REMOVE the MODELS body !!!!

[@stuart7235]

Jenny, I must say I was a little disapointed to hear your review of the Bachmann 37043. There are quite clear differences between said model and the Accurascale 37. Many of these differences have been pointed out below in the comments below - all favouring the Accurascale model. For me, Bachmann has reluctantly allowed certain retailers to reduce the price of its model ONLY because of the clearly superior Accurascale model. You failed to mention for example the obvious line between the nose and the body moldings, the overscale features, such as the red marker light housings. Bachmann has been guilty of this for some time, exaggerating certain elements of a model to emphasise the fact they have included it - rather than making said features the correct subtle scale size. Again the roof detail is far better on the Accurascale model. The handbrake chains are finer on the Accurascale model. The handrails/grabs are finer on the Accurascale model, The windscreen rubber surrounds are more finely represented on the Accurascale model. You made mention of 'etched grills' whilst pointing out the radiator inserts - which appear to be plastic inserts. I am happy to be corrected on this. But previous Bachmann 37s have not included etched radiator grills (not shields). Overall, Bachmann in their continued arrogance towards modellers have not provided their 'deluxe' model specification on this reduced price model. If they had, then there might be some additional features to compare. Whilst I appreciate alot of the observations above can be seen as subjective, your opinions appear a little biased towards Bachmann. For the Bachmann model to really be able to compete with the Accurascale model, it will have to reduce its price further.

[@tonyrobinson362]

Sort of levels the playing field Sam is anti Bachmann.

[@davidford2169]

No pun intended at all,but I have 37 class 37s,including the latest Bachmann 37 with a loksound decoder,....as at the time I would not justify the price of a sound fitted unit,( the decoder was on offer) Also have accurscale sound fitted...accurscale absolutely way obove the Bachmann model in detail and functions.

[@LaurenceHoward-f4h]

Jenny the chains don’t secure the body to the bogie the are attached to the brake piston and are from the cab handbrake wheel.

[@WalterHopevalleyrailwayenthusi]

The best tractor ever couldn’t believe it when they scraped her.

[@martinpattison1567]

Jenny, Both of those Class 37s are out of my era. They both looked very nice, but the Bachmann model looks like it has a paint problem. the front and rear I am sure that you can see the blue through the yellow, 🐒🐒🐒 Martin. (Thailand)

[@tonyrobinson362]

Just bought cl37 loch lomond, Sound fitted, Weathered, and crew fitted £259 Bargain, I do not know why some channels S, Trains knock Bachmann all the time, Ive got two Accurascale deltics but Bachmann locos are good and their prices are now matching if not beating Accurascale sorry for the rant!

[@Sean.hinchlffe]

😂 do they do mortgages for model trains - ouch , outta of my price range , very nice though

[@chrisreynolds7412]

If it still makes business sense to sell it at a heavy discount then why didn't they just price it competitively in the first place ?

[@1964catt]

Just got an old lima class 37, it's simple but I can't afford over 200$ model

[@paullloyd6821]

How easy is it to take the model apart to put some oil on the gear wheels and the flywheels? I'll bet this is a right pain, because these models are NOT designed with ease of maintenance in mind. Eventually the oil will dry out, and the flywheels and gear wheels will need oiling again, so how easy is it to do this?