I’ve got four of the Bachmann Class 90s and they’re the very best locomotives I’ve ever had. They run so beautifully and do everything you could ever wish from a model loco. Even when you have any issues Bachmann Service Department is fantastic and very helpful. Bachmann has raised the bar very high with these Class 90s. They’re worth the money. 😊

@EuviRail

Жыл бұрын

Quality at a good price for sure. Thanks for sharing.

I own one of the orange Frieghtliner livery models. Since I've owned it I cannot fault it. I bought a DCC ready one from Rails of Sheffield, bought a DCC chip from Coastal DCC and fitted it without any problems. The sound is good, running is excellent, pulling power with or without using magnetic couplings is excellent. It's just a great dependable loco.

@EuviRail

Жыл бұрын

Excellent, I'm happy to hear the model is living up to expectations for you. Thanks for sharing Tim

Great review, I always find myself re-watching your reviews when I'm deciding which models to purchase next - your videos contain far more details than the big two manufacturers ever release about their own products! One thing I like about Accurascale is they give the full specs for every model on the product page

@EuviRail

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Simeon and glad these reviews are of use. Yeah, Accurascale do provide the most comprehensive spec on their models. You're left scratching your head and surfing the web to find details on other vendors models!

Hi, I’m looking to possibly buy a Bachmann class 90 in the coming months, I’m very happy that you’ve done a review that will help me, it’s strange how this locomotive doesn’t have any windshield wipers fitted, I’m a big DB Schenker fan so a model in that livery would look great with my other DB Schenker models in my collection, it looks like a great model in all departments, thanks for sharing.

@EuviRail

Ай бұрын

Thanks for that. The DB version looks good. Worth checking around as it has been discounted of late.

I’ve stepped back from the 91 for exactly the same reasons - current Hornby quality and the need to purchase a new coach rake. I’m a massive fan of AC electrics on the real network, so my Bachmann 90 was a bit of a reluctant purchase, however I’ve been surprised by how much I love it, one of those models that just looks right on the layout. It is expensive for a relatively simple shape and as I’m DC the pantograph is an expensive gimmick. Lovely model and fantastic runner.

@clipperrail8988

2 жыл бұрын

For perspective the new Dapol range of Class 68s retailing at £135.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, 100%. My next review is a TPE liveried Class 68 - ahead of the arrival Accurascale MK5 TPE coaches. That combination could be a very nice train indeed.

@brianfearn4246

10 ай бұрын

At one time a number of years ago Bachmann always included a driver figure. I'd rather have none working lights than a driverless cab but it's probably all about cost..😊

I bought the freightliner version and after fitting the correct dcc chip, went to run it in and the noise from the bogies was horrific, removed the chip and it went back under warranty, within 2 weeks it was back, Bachmann had had to replace both bogies as damaged, so not a good start, so refitted the chip and put it on the track, and now no lights are working, so again back to bachmann to sort it, another couple of weeks and its back, they say they are working, dont know how as they deffo do not, so at present its sat in its box until i can face looking at it again, this has left a real sour taste for me, being relativley new to this hobby, and this being my first new bachmann model has deffo made me stay away from buying new again from them. Fingers crossed i dont have any issues with the accurascale class 37 thats due to be released and preordered this year. Keep up with the great vids.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing as it's important see everyone's experiences. Wow, that's been a rough ride for you and is really disappointing to hear. I wonder would Bachmann be willing to get someone to talk through it with on the phone to help troubleshoot and given you are relatively new to the hobby. Questions I would have are - does the loco run under DCC? does it run under DC and if so do the light come on there? What DCC controller do you use. I use the Hornby eLink and Railmaster SW which has it's quirks and with the Class 90 it wouldn't talk to to the loco at all on one particular address but was fine on all the other addresses I tried. I couldn't explain it and didn't have the time to troubleshoot so I changed to a different address and it worked fine. A good Tech on the phone for 10-15mins could cover a lot of ground quickly. Double fingers crossed for the Accurascale Class 37!

@beanie.royalstar

2 жыл бұрын

@@EuviRail Thanks for your reply, it runs greeat now on dcc, i dont have or use dc at all, i have a elink for programming decoders, and use a ztc and now a z21 which is my goto controller as all my locos have different decoders fitted with different functions, and this is easy to see visually each logo and control the functions by using each locos assigned functions by icon. i will try to change it to a different address but honestly cant see that curing it, i will take it to the local club night when work allows and see if the lads can find a fix. just watching your class 66 review whilst typing this.keep these great reviews coming please.

Excellent and informative and honest as always. Thankyou Tim

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Tim

Totally agree with you on the missing driver. I would to see all manufacturers adding drivers. Driverless trains just look wrong. These days, there's no excuse for not having a human looking figure instead of the melted plastic models of old.

A really good review and I liked your perspective on the Hornby Class 91 - having noted Dean Park's review of that model. I love the GNER livery of the Class 91, but I'm wary of buying Hornby due to some previous bad experiences and their high prices. The Class 90 is a beautiful locomotive - especially in the InterCity swallow livery, but I'd feel obliged to add catenary if I was to run it. 🙂

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that. Yeah, catenary can really add to a layout thoug it's not an investment to take lightly. With a pending layout move in the next 12 mths or so I'm shying away from it at this point.

I have two of these and love them! Awaiting the release of the Penny Black livery in DC

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent

Excellent review again. The Bachmann class 90 is a fantastic model. I have 3 90041 90042 90048 all sound. 41 and 48 are factory sound fitted and sound is really good nice and clear. Also I can recommend the retool heljan 86. I have a powerhaul one loads of detail on the underframe. Bit of pain to get the body off. But for £160 at my local model shop a bargain. The new apt and 91 just looks like cheap plastic to me. The guy who runs the local model shop said there is rumour that another manufacturer is looking at the 800 in oo. People not happy with the Hornby effort. So watch this space

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that and glad to hear your 90s are doing the business for you. I'll check out the Heljan 86. At the current prices the door is wide open for a Class 800 competitor. I'm watching with interest!

Looks really good

I do not know if many poelpe know you can run your class 91 with a rake of mark 3 coach's but you have to have a HST on the back end . As the 91s was run like this till the mark 4 was ready on test trains

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Kevin, yeah, it was my initial intent to run the Class 91 in this interim configuration as I also have the Intercity HST so could use the dummy car from that. Once the Class 90 worked out for me it no longer made sense to go with the 91 any more. I was tempted by the LNER 91 but that would have brought the cost of a full train and I'm just not that happy about such an investment with Hornby right now.

I like pre 90ˋs understated and sensitive design philosophy much more than todays design of lower class shapes. Where Form only is a means to manipulate psychology instead of technical functionality. I always recognise trashiness of modern design when looking at such excellent design as this one.

Really enjoyed the review, think once they're out I'll try to get one of the new ones in the Virgin livery. Cheers

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Paul

Design perfection …

Great model, but I did suffer from the first batch bogie fixing that had fractured on 90042

@EuviRail

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Paul. Glad to avoid that issue.

I have the original 2019/20 model and it is brilliant, my only negative comment is the front lights are a bit dim compared to my other Bachmann/Hornby locos. I use DC only wether the lights would be brighter on DCC ? Bill.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Bill, I believe you'd see a definite improvement under DCC but at the same time they could have been brighter. Many headlights on locos don't have prototypical illumination and are more cosmetic additions.

I love the 90,s, have 7 of them, all DCC and 5 with sound. The only thing I find annoying is the cab lights don’t come on unless the headlights are switched on first 🤔

All great points about why the 90 is a good model. But if you want/need(say you are one of those prototype modelling types that do such nice modelling) then for all these good points its sorta kinda still a 90 and not a 91... which makes it all a bit irrelevant as we are comparing two incomparable things which is rather an excersise in logical fallacy. False equivalence n all. But it is a really nice model of a 90, which is a strangely beautiful loco for a steel box full of sparks, even I'm tempted and I normally limit my buying steam or little shunters.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

For the Intercity livery there is a crossover point between the Class 90 and Class 91 in terms of interop with the MK3 coaching stock prior to the MK4 stock becoming mainstream and this was my original plan for the Hornby model. If you were looking for the most current LNER Class 91/MK4 configuration then there is no choice and you've got to shell out the £700+ to get all the elements which I'm sure many are fine with if that's what they are looking for. A combination of it's delay, issues on other Hornby models and the fact that the Class 90 has worked out so well for me meant the Class 91 became redundant. As primarily a steam man thanks for watching and commenting!

@HamStrains

2 жыл бұрын

@@EuviRail since most UK power was at that point derived from steam generated either by burning coal or sustained nuclear reaction heating the water to make the steam to spin the turbine to power the grid to make the train go we can sneakily call this a steam powered train. 🙄 whoever knew a class 90 was a steamer in secret...

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

@@HamStrains LOL - I can now call myself a steam modeler!

@HamStrains

2 жыл бұрын

@@EuviRail a nuclear steam modeller! Coal is so old hat...

ISSUES!!! My recent purchase of a Bachmann Class 90, BEWARE! Both bogies were loose upon arrival and on inspection I found that the plastic bogie mounting points were broken; snapped off due to factory over tightening of the bogie retaining screws! I managed to glue them back together. More issues, the pantograph: Despite purchasing the correct specialised DDC decoder for this model the pantograph never worked properly and then the loco started to judder and having flickering lights whilst running, before stopping completely! I've now physically disconnected the pantograph's electrical power by unplugging its connector on the PCB and now and it runs well. The pantograph is an annoying gimmick which I'm sure will bring untold ongoing issues and misery (just like the Johnson government!) to most owners at some point. The mechanism simply is not robust enough to have been rolled out! Apart from this horror story of my experience the loco actually looks great. CONCLUSION: The constant quality issues with both Hornby and Bachmann's locos, along with their ludicrous price increases has now led me to boycott buying new from either. They're just no longer worth the money or the hassle!

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of my Hattons 66 experience from a couple of years back! To be honest I would have shot that model right back to Bachmann for a replacement or a refund. It sounds like dropped box damage to me which means there's is no limit to the resulting grief. Bachmann's packaging isn't the best in class by any means but either way I can't see this loco taking much abuse without damage. I'm not necessarily a motorised pantograph fan myself - give me a robust, easily posable pantograph any day - but along with the associated sound effects I took to the pantograph here more than I thought I would. The Accurascale Class 92s are going to have them as well so we'll see how they turn out. Thankfully I had a good experience with my two 90s but to be honest I was a bit weary myself after issues on a run of previous models. That and the pricing of course. Thanks for sharing.

Hi mate anther great video mate I really injoy it every interesting I have 3 Bachmann class90 locos 1 in intercity and 2 in railfeight jive they are great locos I also have the new hornby APT/P TRAINS on my wcml layout the pantographs on the APT/P are not good but I do like the APT trains stay safe and well mate goodbye for how clive

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Clive

I have the two freight Class 90 from first batch. Good runner and looks good but does have a design flaw. The bogie pivots are on a thick plastic boss which is fine but this is attached to a thin plastic roof above the gears. You can get fractures along this thin roof which happened to one of mine after about a year. I spent days trying to fix this using UV resin but was ultimately unsuccessful so bought another one. Manufacturer was rewarded for a bad design! I bought servo DCC chips for both of mine but to be honest after you have raised and lowered the pantograph a few times you don't bother. Just a pointless gimmick. Admittedly I don't have catenary. I agree the Class 90 is much more versatile than the Class 91. Fortunately I have some of the original Hornby Swallow livery Mk4s so don't have to worry about getting new carriages to go with the Class 91. Have not got the Class 91 yet though.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that Alan and I'm sorry to hear about that issue which I'll watch out for in the future. I definitely don't like rewarding bad design! It was the addition of sound that actually won me over on the pantograph. It's a feature I would typically have viewed in the same manner as rotating fans or opening cab doors....something that will ultimately break and cause problems. If you have Swallow MK4s you're good to go then and let us know how the Class 91 works out you when you get it. Visually it looks like a lovely loco.

@alanrobertson9790

2 жыл бұрын

@@EuviRail Run in my Intercity Swallow livery Class 91 now and there are no running issues or faults. As a fairly plain angular slab sided class, only working on passenger trains, I can't say I'm a fan but it completes my collection. Quality and performance wise no issues but at around £200 not very good value. The Class 90 is a more interesting prototype. With modern era there are so many instances when you need to buy a complete train. Each HST, IE800, Class 91 etc needs a complete train, even wagons you need 10 of each. You don't get many mixed trains these days, not since Speedlink. You can't buy multiples of everything. Even if you had the cash there wouldn't be enough space. So you need to be selective. I have no interest in Eurostar or APT for example. Prefer the more mundane.

Bought a new Hornby rail freight class 90 once for my birthday. Ran on arrival until it smoked and the motor blew after three runs up and down a piece of test track.had it fixed free from Hornby but honestly shocking. The crap Hornby makes isn't even funny anymore.

@EuviRail

10 ай бұрын

Hornby have produced some horror shows over the years and this was one of them. Thanks for sharing.

Is this a predecessor of the Intercity 225?

@EuviRail

Жыл бұрын

I would have thought so myself but it appears the Class 91 was actually derived from the APT as an alternative to the Class 89. The Class 90 was derived from the Class 87.

I recently purchased Freightliner 90041 with sound to go with my previous acquisition Freightliner 90042, in short I'm not impressed with the factory sound and also the volume of it isn't high enough even max'd out at 192 on CV63. I like the Bachmann Class 90's but now they are stupidly priced for what you get and paying £280 for the new release sound version will be my last purchase of these and only bought it to double head with 90042, I mean look at the price of their special DB version which has an absolutely horrendous price tag for both DCC Ready & DCC Sound.

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. That's disappointing on the volume front. I'm wondering if there is actually a fault there - bad speaker or coupling capacitor? I'd get on to Bachmann about it. Yeah, the new RRPs are crazy and if you can't get the typical retailer discount they are bad value.

@sapphirejunction8993

2 жыл бұрын

@@EuviRail I actually sent it back to the retailer and they tested it under Bachmann advisement and concluded there was nothing wrong with it and within normal parameters as far as sound is concerned. Basically it's just isn't good but acceptable to Bachmann standards thus their standards must be pretty low, they have probably put in a £2 speaker in a £280 loco.

Will you still buy and review the class 91 though?

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

I won't be covering the Class 91 but I have included a link in the description to a 91 review from Dean Park Model Railway which is worth checking out.

I think they ran out of very tiny people to put into the cab. I mean there are not many tiny people who can fit into such a small cab. They can just use plastic figurines because they can’t really drive the locomotive. So they need real but very tiny people. And those are hard to come by. Also, I am sure those tiny people are now well organised so they expect higher wages. And all those modern work regulations. I am sure that’s the reason why there is no driver in the cab. Tiny people so small they can fit in the cab are too rare. It was already difficult to find tiny people for those Star Wars robots. So it really difficult to find even smaller people.

I bought a HORNBY Class 91 and its lovely to look at but a terrible runner. My BACHMANN Class 90 is a much better loco

@EuviRail

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Stephen. I'm sorry to hear the 91 has been a poor runner for you. I did suspect the Bachmann would be a better model than the 91 overall.