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Bachmann - 63151 - Engine, Diesel, S-4 - Western Maryland - 145

13  of these sold for an average price of: 84.1884.1813 of these sold for an average price of: 84.18
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Collectors value this item at an average of 84.1884.18Collectors value this item at an average of 84.18
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N Scale - Bachmann - 63151 - Engine, Diesel, S-4 - Western Maryland - 145
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Stock Number63151
Original Retail Price$139.00
BrandBachmann
ManufacturerBachmann
Body StyleBachmann Diesel Switcher S4
PrototypeEngine, Diesel, S-4
Road or Company NameWestern Maryland (Details)
Reporting MarksWM
Road or Reporting Number145
Paint Color(s)Gray and Yellow
DCC ReadinessDC/DCC Dual Mode Decoder
Release Date2013-08-01
Item CategoryLocomotives
Model TypeDiesel
Model SubtypeAlco
Model VarietyS4



Model Information: Bachmann introduced this model in 2013. After the successful roll-out of their earlier 44T and 70T models (which in our opinion don't run very well), it seemed they found a marketplace and decided to produce more switchers. Some folks have found that these run very well but our experience has been mixed (with the 44Ts). All of the Bachmann switchers have nice detail. Also Bachmann customer service is excellent and if you receive a bad unit, they are very prompt and courteous in swapping a good loco for a bad one. These models feature low-profile blackened wheels, magnetic operating couplers (EZ-Mates are not our personal favorite but they work) and smooth, quiet operation. They are NOT easy to disassemble, like most modern Bachmann units, so tuning may prove difficult.

These engines have standard modern features as well as a factory standard DCC-Decoder. Unlike with Atlas locomotives, there is no DCC-Ready option. Given Rapido Trains bad experience with releasing DCC-only locomotives, we expect that Bachmann is also receiving some negative feedback. This does not seem to deter Bachmann, as all of their recent releases have been DCC-only.

Road Name History:
This line was established in 1852 under another name but was renamed Western Maryland Rail Road before the first rail was laid. By 1862 they had built from Baltimore to Union Bridge, Maryland at which point it became the responsibility of the Union Army. Construction resumed after the war. WM built west to Hagerstown then Cumberland where the line spilt in two. One route headed northwest to an important interchange with Pittsburgh & Lake Erie at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The other line ran southwest into the rich coal fields around Elkins and Durban, West Virginia. On the east end, they also had routes to York and Gettysburg and an important connection with the Reading at Shippensburg, all in Pennsylvania. At 878 miles, WM was between Maine Central and Spokane Portland & Seattle in relative length.

The city of Baltimore had a large stake in the WM but sold it in 1902 to Jay Gould. The Gould empire unraveled just six years later and the WM was reorganized with Railway replacing Rail Road in the name and John D. Rockefeller holding a 43% stake. He sold those shares to Baltimore & Ohio in 1927. Accused of violating antitrust laws, B&O placed those shares in a non-voting trust.

After 1900, WM relied heavily on 2-8-0’s, ordering 177 between 1900 and 1923 (by which time other railroads were already ordering 2-8-2’s.) Some of these Consolidations were real bruisers with the same tractive effort as WM’s 2-6-6-2’s. Also in road service were 30 2-10-0 Decapods (10 Russian Decapods and 20 much larger versions,) a dozen 4-8-4’s to handle the high speed trains, and a dozen 4-6-6-4 Challengers. The Challengers turned out to be a disappointment to WM. They were rough riders and were hard on the track. As a result, they were soon demoted to pusher service alongside WM’s 25 2-8-8-2’s. A fleet of 19 low drivered Pacifics handled most of the passenger assignments. One element found on most of the WM steam fleet was low snowplow pilots in lieu of the traditional boiler tube pilots. WM was one of a few Class One railroads to employ Shay locomotives to serve steeply graded branchlines. WM had one 2-truck, two 3-truck and two 4-truck Shays. Shay #6 built in 1945 was the last Shay built by Lima Locomotive Works.

WM began to dieselize in 1947 on the east end where they would not raise the ire of their coal mining customers on the west end. The diesel fleet was surprisingly varied for a line their size with cab units from both Alco and EMD, road switchers from Alco, EMD and Baldwin and yard switchers from GE, Baldwin and Alco. The road switchers from Alco and Baldwin plus the EMD GP7;s were delivered with the long hood as the front while the EMD GP9’s were delivered with the short hood as the front. The Second Generation of diesels was all EMD.

In addition to the voluminous coal traffic, WM was a part of two bridge routes for merchandise moving between the northeast and the upper Midwest. These were the Alphabet Route (with Nickel Plate Road, Wheeling & Lake Erie, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, Reading and others) and the Central States Dispatch (with Baltimore & Ohio, Reading, Jersey Central, Lehigh & Hudson River and New Haven.) Iron ore also moved from Baltimore area ports to steel mills on the connecting P&LE.

Passenger service was a bit of an afterthought on the WM. Not only did they not have a shiny streamliner, but their heavyweight coach trains lasted only until 1957 before being discontinued. Steam generator equipped hammerhead RS-3’s replaced the Pacifics in passenger service for a few years before being reassigned to freight duty.

In 1967, B&O (by this time controlled by Chesapeake & Ohio) finally obtained permission to take overt control of the WM. Not much changed for the next five years. In 1973 they adopted the Chessie System image and 125 miles of WM mainline was abandoned in favor of trackage rights on a parallel B&O line. In 1983, the Western Maryland was absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio. Western Maryland was known for frequently washing their locomotives in both the steam and diesel eras. They kept up this tradition until the start of the Chessie System era.
Brand/Importer Information:
Bachmann Industries (Bachmann Brothers, Inc.) is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong; specializing in model railroading.

Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of its North American headquarters, Bachmann is today part of the Kader group, who model products are made at a Chinese Government joint-venture plant in Dongguan, China. Bachmann's brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets, and premium offerings in many scales. The Spectrum line is the high quality, model railroad product line, offered in N, HO, Large Scale, On30, and Williams O gauge all aimed for the hobbyist market. Bachmann is the producer of the famous railroad village product line known as "Plasticville." The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 December 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, a slight increase of 3.36% as compared to 2005.
Item created by: gdm on 2016-03-03 16:20:44. Last edited by CNW400 on 2020-05-13 20:09:51

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