Bachmann - 63153 - Engine, Diesel, S-4 - Pittsburgh & Lake Erie - 8662

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: The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE) (reporting mark PLE), also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. In 1880, William Henry Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway bought stock to the tune of $200,000 in the P&LE. The P&LE would stay in the Vanderbilt's New York Central system until Conrail. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio at nearby Haselton, Ohio in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie (at Ashtabula, Ohio) until the formation of Conrail in 1976.

The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of material. It was a specialized railroad deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.

At the end of 1970 P&LE operated 211 miles of road on 784 miles of track, not including PC&Y and Y&S; in 1970 it reported 1419 million ton-miles of revenue freight, down from 2437 million in 1944.

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.