Bachmann NEW 94XX Pannier tank - no nonsense review & dcc sound/stay alive fitting guide 

Great video, great layout! Your videos are definitely giving me the confidence to start tinkering with my locos - fitted your class 66 double speaker configuration into my class 68 it sounds awesome!

Gorgeous little locomotive hauling a very attractive passenger train.

Really great work Eric. a good suite of sounds installed on a very nice model. Impressed with the KA and the only niggle I would have is the vacuum pump "tinkle" which is quite dominant. Nice job Eric

Thank you for showing me how to get DCC Sound into the 94xx.

Great job - very nice loco!

Hi Great video and install. I have used the same stay alive in the oxford Janus, with a V4 esu sound chip. I had jerky running. I followed a esu video, to set cv54 to 0 then press F1, the chip then maps the bemf for the loco through the speed range over about a 1 metre of track. It then runs a lot smoother.

Great little tutorial 😎👍

I’m glad you mentioned the running characteristics and didn’t just gloss over it, for me it was glaringly obvious when backing in to the station. Ultimately if there is an issue you have to say it. You weren’t overly critical, but the disappointment was clear to see. It’s a beautiful model, even if it is a kettle, but not for me.

Thank you for showing how you added a stay-alive to this model. I purchased the Locomotion-exclusive 9400. It's absolutely gorgeous and runs smoothly on DC. I will need to chip it before I can run it on my big club layout which will be the true test. I don't think that particular stay-alive brand is available in the US so I will have to source a substitute. I've encountered similar jerky running issues with another B-mann coreless motor loco, the N gauge Fairburn tank. I had to dial the ESU LokPilot BEMF settings way, way back to get it to run smoothly while still having some BEMF there. I could share my settings with you if you think it could help set a baseline.

Hi Eric, just about to do this mod and already given up……for now. Too afraid to separate the chassis rail from the plastic body to access to weight screws. When I separate the two, the brake rods, I assume, go through the boiler stays at the front near the smoke box. Did you push these out in advance from underneath. Not clear in your video. If I force it, they are going to break. Can you remember what you did? Cheers, Stuart

Pity about it not running properly, still...its a fine looking loco. Interesting video Eric..nice one.

im so jealous good video eric

Did you get the decoder settings for it to run better ? I have ordered one today and en saw your video ..arrrrgh….if you have he cv settings for improved running, please share..thanks

I approve of stay-alives. I don't know about ESU, but Zimo decoders do have documented settings for coreless motors.

I will have one of those by the end of this year, mark my words ;)

Hi Eric, question for you about your choice of 3 wire decoders, you mentioned you’ve had bad performance with 2 wire versions like Lais Kung Fu’s? Is that specific to ESU? Admittedly I’m not a DCC sound man (yet), but I’m a zimo decoder user, simply because I’ve found their performance faultless across all my locos and I like sticking to one brand (similar to yourself I guess?), I particularly found great running with the coreless motor’d loco’s I have. My understanding from the handful I’ve installed is that on the underside of every NEXT18 socket board there are solder pads ready for ground and V+ specifically designed for two wire stay alives, and that this will work no matter what decoder you install because it’s built into the NEXT18 standard. (This is why I love the next18 socket design) The Lais Kung fu stay alive’s are £10 each from CM3 (not affiliated) which I find a great price, and I like that they come in 3 shapes. They seem same size or even smaller than the capacitor unit you had there? Anyway, really great video, just discovered your channel, I wanted to share my thoughts and ask what you think - particularly what you have found issues to be with your specific decoders and 2 wire stay alives? Cheers, G

That is a really nice model Eric i do quite like the look of the 94xx might have to get one and that stay alive is a great unit to have.

I might get one of them but will renumber it to 9466

Hi great video I am going to do the same. but on looking for the speaker you have fitted it is a 6 ohm not 8 ohm like you stated in the video and the one in the video is showing 6 ohm on the packet is it ok to mix 6 and 8 ohm together

Has your Bachmann/ EFE rail 1938 tube stock arrived yet?

Eric the new heljan class 33's are coming out and there is a video of two going into the underground in a 1 at the front and one at the back formation would be cool if you could run that Thanks again cameron

To use the shovelling sound, how about putting in a train crew?

Mine went back to the retailer as it was jerky too. It also cut out on every single set of points and randomly sped up/slowed down when running at speed. Bachmann reckoned it was down to dirty/misaligned pickups (I cleaned and aligned them so not that) or a loose wire somewhere! 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

Hi, If this 'was' a smooth running loco - why do you need a 'stay alive' ?? I have an 'old' Fleischmann 2-4-0 with a simple DCC decoder and it runs even at the slowest speed over my Insulfrog points. It's a matter of quality motor and design ! In doing so you've changed the 'balance' of the loco. See what happens in the long run. How about it ? Success!