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Bachmann - 81654 - Locomotive, Steam, 4-8-2 Mountain - Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis - 553

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N Scale - Bachmann - 81654 - Locomotive, Steam, 4-8-2 Mountain - Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis - 553
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Stock Number81654
Original Retail Price$175.00
BrandBachmann
ManufacturerBachmann
Body StyleBachmann Steam Engine 4-8-2 Light Mountain
Prototype VehicleLocomotive, Steam, 4-8-2 Mountain (Details)
Road or Company NameNashville Chattanooga & St. Louis (Details)
Road or Reporting Number553
Paint Color(s)Black
Print Color(s)Yellow
Coupler TypeRapido Hook
Wheel TypeNickel-Silver Plated Metal
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
DCC ReadinessFriendly
Release Date2003-01-01
Item CategoryLocomotives
Model TypeSteam
Model Subtype4-8-2
Model VarietyLight Mountain
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era II: Late Steam (1901 - 1938)
Scale1/160



Model Information: Bachmann introduced this model in 2003. They revised it in 2012. The early version runs a bit sketchy. The later version runs better. The early version has a split frame chassis with a skew-wound 5-pole motor. It does have traction tires. The later version has a 3-pole motor.
DCC Information: The 2003 version allows installation of a decoder in the tender with all wires for control of motor, power leads and lights terminating somewhere in the tender. A basic decoder with some soldering skills will likely do the trick. The 2012 redo is much easier but I am not sure if there is a factory decoder for this model.
Prototype History:
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as the Mountain type.

The 4-8-2 was most popular on the North American continent. When the 4-6-2 Pacific fleets were becoming over-burdened as passenger trains grew in length and weight, the first North American 4-8-2 locomotives were built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) in 1911. It is possible that the "Mountain" name was originated by C&O, after the Allegheny Mountains where their first 4-8-2 locomotives were built to work. ALCO combined the traction of the eight-coupled 2-8-2 Mikado with the excellent tracking qualities of the Pacific's four-wheel leading truck. Although C&O intended their new Mountains for passenger service, the type also proved ideal for the new, faster freight services that railroads in the United States were introducing. Many 4-8-2 locomotives were therefore built for dual service.

The New York Central Railroad (NYC) called the 4-8-2 type of steam locomotive the Mohawk type. It was known as the Mountain type on other roads, but the mighty New York Central didn't see the name to be fitting on its famous Water Level Route, so it instead picked the name of one of those rivers its rails followed, the Mohawk River, to name its newest type of locomotive. Despite the more common name, the 4-8-2 was actually suited in many ways more to flatland running than slow mountain slogging, with its 4-wheel leading truck for stability at speed.

From Wikipedia
Road Name History:
The NC&St.L (not to be confused with NYC&St.L which is the Nickel Plate Road) dates to 1845. Before 1873 it was called the Nashville & Chattanooga and locals continued to call it “the NC” until the end.

The NC&St.L ran from Memphis east to Nashville, then southeast to Chattanooga and finally Atlanta. There were also important branches to Paducah, Kentucky where they shared ownership of a bridge across the Ohio River with the CB&Q; Columbia, Tennessee; and Huntsville and Gadsden, Alabama (a big steel center.)

In 1879, NC&St.L began buying and leasing lines to reach Evansville, Indiana then west to St. Louis. In a move typical of the era, the L&N bought 55% of NC&St.L’s stock, and transferred those lines to itself. Although operated independently, the NC&St.L would remain under the control of the L&N for the next 78 years.

NC&St.L was the middle link in “the Dixie Route” for passenger trains between Chicago (or St. Louis) and Florida. Trains such as The Dixie Flagler would travel on (from north to south) C&EI, L&N, NC&St.L (from Nashville to Atlanta), Atlanta Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line and Florida East Coast. St. Louis trains skipped the C&EI, and some others used Central of Georgia instead of the AB&C.

On the steam front, Consolidations and Mikes handled the freight with Pacific’s and Mountains pulling passengers. Most engines were equipped with Vanderbilt tenders. The only “modern” steam was a fleet of 25 4-8-4’s, the first of that wheel arrangement in the south. NC&St.L called them “Dixies” instead of Northerns. These had semi-Vanderbilt tenders (flat sides that curved inward toward the bottom), smooth boilers, and conical smoke box fronts. The first batch had wide panels on the running boards that were painted yellow. These earned the nickname “Yellow Jackets.”

North of Chattanooga, the NC&St.L crossed the Cumberland Mountains with 2.5% grades. This required pusher service. They had a trio of 2-8-8-2’s for this but often used 2-8-0’s and Mikes. Since there was nowhere to turn power at the summit, the helpers could face in either direction. Picture a long passenger train with a Yellow Jacket on the point. Passenger trains received helpers ONLY on the head end. So a 2-8-2 couples to the front of the Yellow Jacket -nose-to-nose. The Mike then leads the train over the mountains with the Vanderbilt tender leading the way. This happened routinely.

By 1953, NC&St.L had completely dieselized with an all EMD roster. F3’s and F7’s were painted blue and silver with black roofs. Geeps and switchers were painted oxide red with yellow stripes (with the exception of some dual service geeps in blue and silver.) The first batch of GP7’s were delivered with switcher trucks. There is some argument over whether they did this to save money or weight. Later groups came with standard Blomberg trucks. The F’s were used in freight and passenger service although only the B units had steam generators so a passenger train would have at least an A and B no matter how short it was.

During the 50’s, NC&St.L was 1,043 miles long (a bit longer than Lackawanna or Montana Rail Link), had 132 diesels, 106 passenger cars and 6,800 freight cars. In 1957, they were finally merged into parent L&N.
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 2017-09-30 18:30:32

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