# Bachmann Brass Rail



## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

I saw Al had an auction going over on dweedle-bay for new Bachmann Brass Rail. Looks like 332 or there abouts. I had not heard of Bachmann getting into solid brass rail. Are they changing with the times, or just putting their name on some third party product?

Fil


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## Bucksco (Jan 4, 2008)

Announced in October at the iHobby Expo. 
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewCat&catId=463 
(prices listed are MSRP not street price and it is NEW tooling).


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

Has anyone had any experience with this yet? 

Fil


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## Bucksco (Jan 4, 2008)

Scheduled to arrive at the beginning of February.


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## adelmo (Jan 2, 2008)

Al Kramer has on it on ebay now for $5 ft plus shipping. 

I am going to stick with German made Piko 4' straight sections for now. 

Alan


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

looks like it works out to about $5.66 a foot, plus shipping. 
Ralph


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## Big Tracks (Jan 3, 2008)

Has anyone heard wether or not Bachmann will be selling the ties in bulk..I am using aluminum track but the ties look so much 
better than AMS 

Richard


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Llagas Creek tie strips are nicely detailed, and they have 3 different types, 1/32 scale mainline, 1/20 narrow gauge, and 1/22 ties. I have some of the 1/20 track that I've had for a long time, very nice stuff for aluminum rail. I had 1 6 foot length of the standard gauge track, but I sold the tie strips, I don't model that scale.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Bachmann's rail joiners look a lot like the other brass rail joiners out there. I guess there's only so many ways to make that design, especially if you want your track to be usable with the other brands. It does look like the price on their track joiners is a good one due to the quantity that you get. I need a bunch of them for the used brass rail that I bought off of flea bay last summer.


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## TROY (Dec 17, 2010)

Interesting considering bachy owns the factory and tooling making usa and aristo 332 brass track.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

When I first read this announcement by Bachmann to offer code 332 brass track, I thought "Whatever possessed them to do that?" 
There are already close to a dozen manufacturers with the identical product and the Bachmann street pricing is no better than the others, that would have been the only differentiator. 
I think it would have made more sense for Bachmann to offer code 250 in brass, not only is there very little competition in code 250 brass, the material cost (and thus the price) is quite a bit less and the rails look more prototypical to boot.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By TROY on 18 Dec 2011 11:38 AM 
Interesting considering bachy owns the factory and tooling making usa and aristo 332 brass track. 
As far as I know, Sanda Kan (if that is the factory you refer to) is owned by Kader Industries, not by Bachmann.
Kader Industries also owns Bachmann, so there is that connection, but Bachmann doesn't own Sanda Kan.


It's also news to me that Sanda Kan actually makes the brass rail profile for Arist and USA Trains track - doesn't really fit into their area of expertise.

None of the European code 332 track manufacturers manufacture their own brass rail - they all get it from the same source in Gemany.

Knut


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## Bucksco (Jan 4, 2008)

The New Bachmann brass track has been designed with the 1:20.3 line of Narrow Gauge equipment in mind (Ties and spacing that is....)


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

But if they had a hand (Kader anyway) in making other rail, why not get into the fray sooner? 

Fil


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## Bucksco (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By work4fil on 18 Dec 2011 02:44 PM 
But if they had a hand (Kader anyway) in making other rail, why not get into the fray sooner? 

Fil What difference does it make?


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

It would make a difference to me. It wouldn't make sense for me to invest in a product a company has been making for other competitors, who comes late to the party. Afterall, I would think that a manufacturer would want to grow their business in dire economic times, instead of sitting on the fence, contemplating whether the same product they are making for others is worth selling as theur own. 

Fil


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By Bucksco on 18 Dec 2011 02:39 PM 
The New Bachmann brass track has been designed with the 1:20.3 line of Narrow Gauge equipment in mind (Ties and spacing that is....) 
If that is the case, then Mr. Bachmann wasn't thinking...............

The 3 ft narrow gauge D&RG Ralroad for instance started initially with 30 lbs/yd rail, increasing to 45 lbs and finally to 70, 80 and 85 lbs at the end of their operation.

Other US narrow gauge railroads used betrween 50 and 60 lbs rails.
Guess what code 332 equates to in the prototype in 1:20.3 scale....130 lb/yd rail - way off! 

Code 250 in 1:20.3 scale equates to 80 lb rail, still on the high end and code 215 equates to 65 lb rail. that would have been ideal.

Nice reference article here:

http://www.pcrails.com/DualGauge/SSG.htm

Knut


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## Bucksco (Jan 4, 2008)

Perhaps "Mr. Bachmann" is attempting to bring a product to market that is compatible with the bulk of the existing product out there and looks more like "Narrow Gauge" track. To produce an exact match for actual Narrow Gauge prototype track would probably be nice for a certain Niche market but would not sell enough product to justify the tooling investment. I basically wanted to post info on the new product - not get into a discussion of "whose track is better" or "why isn't the new Bachmann track made to a particular prototype" so this will be my last posting on the subject. 
Thanks. 

P.S. This is a totally new product - not based on any other manufacturer's track.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Oh well, 

Gets back to the original question - why introduce a product that already exists from quite a few other manufacturers including the "narrow gauge" ties and spacing that was mentioned earlier. 
Sorry - but "Me too" products don't really get me all exited. 

Knut


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm probably going to start a flame war with this opinion. If so, it wasn't my intent. Simply put, Code 332 is the _defacto_ size for rail in largescale. Deal with it. Before anybody jumps in with the "It's not prototypical!!" argument, let me say, _"I agree with you!"_ That being said, the same way that 1:29 is the _defacto_ scale ratio for standard gauge, Code 332 has become the same for rail and our wishing it were different isn't going to change anything! Code 250 _barely_ works with the oversized flanges common on most 1:22.5 rolling stock. Prototypical flanges on wheels don't work well on garden railroads! If you are looking for scale modeling realism, going the mass market route is ill-advised! Bachmann, Aristo, USA.....all of the companies are in business first and foremost _to make money_ in a bad and still getting worse economy! Considering the price of brass, I'm surprised that they didn't go with aluminum! There's a reason that Code 215 isn't used regularly outside! It's too small and fragile! The vast majority of large scalers use Code 332 track. That's where the demand is so that's what they'll offer! Remember, we are dealing with two scales at the same time! There's the scale we model in (1:20.3, 1:29, etc...) and then there is the 1:1 scale world that our trains run in! Garden railroading is a continual compromise between those two which makes it unique in all of model railroading! (Okay, here endeth the sermon.)


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Steve, 

I used to think that as well (what you wrote) until a friend of mine redid his outdoor layout all in code 215 track. 
Turns out that a lot of what I thought were good reasons to use code 332 rail are not actually true. 
Most of my Large Scale equipment has the original 3mm flanges - turns out all the equipment with the large flanges ran just fine on the code 215 track that was used. And operation was just as reliable as with code 332 track. I'm also not planning to have elephants walk on the track. so that is not a consideration. 
Personally, I will move to code 250 track simply because there are more ready made switches available than for code 215 track. 

I was simply trying to get my head around Bachmann's decision to introduce a brand new product (including new tooling) that already exists from quite a few other manufacturers with nothing that differentiates the Bachmann offering. 

Knut


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I believe it probably revolves around trying to make more money. Since they are owned by Kader, who apparently now manufacturers track for USAT and Aristo, I would guess that Bachmann can sell the same track for either less $$ than Aristo and USAT or they can sell for the same price and more more profit. 

All the major manufacturers make 40' box cars, although not always the same road names and paint schemes. 

When in doubt, look for the $$, ha ha! 

Greg


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

An old friend of mine made the following statement when questioning why a business made a certain decision, or took a certain action. 

'ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY!." 

Although I am not as enlightened as Greg on who owns who/what, the follow the money adage has always followed true. That is not to say that the money always followed the choice, but you can take it to the bank that money is always the motivator. 

All of that being said, if I can buy B'mann track for less money than Aristo/USA (haven't seen pricing yet), I have no allegiance to any particular vendor provided the quality is somewhat equal. 

My tuppence. 

Bob C.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

If the Bachmann track does have the 1/20 scale tie size, spacing, and detail, then it would be different from the other major brands of track, like USA or Aristo. To have U.S. prototype track instead of European prototype could be a good selling point for the people who want track that looks like American narrow gauge instead of European meter gauge. I may be too picky but I don't care for the look of the ties on the major brands of sectional track. What little track that I do have is LLagas Creek track because it looks proper for American narrow gauge.


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

I guess to some degree, it depends on what you are doing. Both Aristo and USA Trains make track pointed at the mainline standard gauge (USA tie spacing) and the original European meter gauge (Euro tie spacing). The original track brought in to this country by LGB about 40 years ago was meter gauge and European prototype. As a narrowgauge modeler I am tickled to have a real narrowgauge choice. 

The club I belong to does several road shows a year, and overall we have found that for the assemble/dissassemble tough use we put it to the Euro tie spacing holds up better no matter who made it. Our fixed layout uses all USA tie spacing (we narrowgaugers are a minority) and it works well. I am glad to see another option for track that I don't have to hand lay. 

Bob C.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By armorsmith on 20 Dec 2011 03:08 PM 
As a narrowgauge modeler I am tickled to have a real narrow gauge choice. 


Do you really think the new Bachmann track is gong to look anything like the prototype?










Not only that, even if the Bachmann track did look like this, one still needs to use switches, crossings and miscellaneous track sections of other styles from other manufacturers since Bachmann is only offering a few types of sectional track.

Knut


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

We should be getting the new track next week.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Do you really think the new Bachmann track is gong to look anything like the prototype? 
Being narrow gauge, the answer is most likely "yes." (Okay, with the exception of really tall rails, but there's also a prototype for that! On the EBT, no less!) 

Seriously, narrow gauge tie shapes were historically all over the place--even on the same railroad. In many cases, the ties were bought from local farmers and the like, who worked from general guidelines but the railroads weren't usually that picky. Even the "big" railroads like the D&RGW had considerable variation in ties over their network. So, when you have Accucraft, Llagas Creek, Bachmann, Micro Engineering, et al all making "narrow gauge" ties, they're all going to be accurate for ties used on some railroad somewhere, and very likely accurate for different ties used on the same railroad. 

I personally think its a very good move on their part. We've seen them correct their drive issues in their locos by moving to brass gears to improve reliability. This new track corrects the other weak link in their product line. I was just in the hobby shop earlier this week when another customer had brought back a Bachmann tin track switch because--out of the box--it didn't line up with the rest of his B'mann tin track. About the only thing the poor soul behind the counter could say was "it's not good track to begin with." I haven't a clue how that can remotely be good for a company's reputation--the same as broken gears out of the box. I'm glad to see them stepping up to fix these known (and oft lamented) foibles. 

Later, 

K


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

I hope Bachmann has changed for the better. This could be just what our hobby needed. 

Thank you everyone. 

Fil


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