really nice review Kris! You just confirmed my choice of not buying them. Wayyyyy too expensive for what you get. Maybe if another manufacturer did them they would be of more quality for that price tag.
27:07 I'm blown away by the price point of the coaches especially seeing that the lighting flickers. A wee bit pricey! Having said that, the loco pricing seems reasonable. Do you know if these are coming out in nscale? Great review, Kris. Take care. Sean.
The loco and cars were actually announced in N scale as well. You might be paying about the same or more I hear. But that’s a call you will need to make when the time comes. Love to see if the N scale is any better.
Too bad for the flickering lights. What a bummer. Hopefully someone does a how to video on installing a capacitor. Honestly at that price they should have come equipped with one. Thanks for the Rocco coupler part number. Great review!!
I do like the VIA Rail Charger by Bachmann, but this is disappointing in my option. Mainly the price, rollability, lighting, and those couplers! If the couplers were standard kadees, instead of the European connections. I would order this in a heart beat, but having to modify a $150.00 car to accept kadees. No way! The rollability can be resolved, and maybe the flickering lights. Either way, great review. I am thankful I watched the review first, instead of buying sight on scene. The review has changed my mind, and saved my wallet.
Really nice review Kris, they look great but unfortunate they don’t perform at the same level. I replay thought this was Bachmanns moment to break the “cheap” reputation. Guess not
Bachmann is keeping with the tradition they've had for years lol. High price for things that don't work great. The locomotive is really nice tho. I'd personally cut the bar off of the coupler above track height like I had to on my kadee couplers.
Hi Kris, great comprehensive review, like all the pros and cons you mentioned, though I would not buy something like this it's good to know what other products are out there.
height - spelling error when talking about couplers. I'm reviewing the review. Seriously; very interesting and I like VIA but not a fan of the current Bachmann offering.
@@BriansModelTrains I appreciate it. No the funny thing is that I have those pre saved in my editor. On one of my last review videos someone said the same thing lol. I didn’t think much of it this time as I thought I changed it. I will fix it now for next time.
This runs between Montreal and Toronto. It is replacing the P42 loco as those will be scrapped soon, the same as the LRC cars. 4 sets have already arrived and Via will continue to grow this fleet. I hear they run as early as 6-7am and 5-7pm through my local area.
@@GoViaorgohomeit also runs between Montreal and Ottawa, Ottawa and Toronto and Montreal to Toronto. A tad expensive for me regarding the locomotive and cars. I am very much a F40PH/Budd coaches for me.
Hi Kris. Thanks for a really informative review. I work at The Via station in Dorval, and I see the Venture trains on a daily basis. First impression on seeing the Bachmann locomotive and coaches was not to great. I model mostly European, my only North American models are mostly Via. At first glance, the coaches look a little “cheap” for lack of a better word, and at least in my eyes, they don’t seem right, not to mention the issue of price. There is something about the locomotive that just doesn’t seem to hit the mark. I think I’ll pass on this set. Maybe Rapido can improve on this set, not withstanding their debacle with the first run of the turbo train. It’s too bad Roco or Piko didn’t make this set, at least we would have close couplings. Never was a big fan of Bachmann. I don’t think I’ll be buying this set. Thanks again for the review. Looking forward to the next one. Cheers!
Thanks for watching! I agree that the cars have almost a cheap look and feel to them. If I was even 60% sure another company would make the set I would have waited. Unfortunately I don’t see it to be the case. However even with Go equipment we have settled for athearns USA model being painted in Canadian road names for years and years till Rapido did them properly so I will hold out hope that it could still happen at some point. The loco is cool though. Sounds neat though I’m more of a esu fan. Keep alive in loco but not cars is a hard miss for me. I Like my Roco northlander so I can see how you would think they could do a better job. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. -Kris
I connect all the cars with Roco euro couplers. Coupler number is in the video. It was not holding to the loco either so loco got Kadee #5 for now. I will replace car ends with Kadee euro couplers eventually.
I wonder if the N-scale versions will have similar issues. For the price they are asking, it is really a shame that you have to source other couplers to make the train work. Was there no way to adjust the original, included knuckle couplers ?
I tried. I was so close to returning the set out of pure disappointment. Nothing worked to keep them together and with them having the euro ends to hold the coupler I was limited on what I had. I did change the loco to a #5 kadee but that was it. Had to special order those from a shop in Toronto. They overnighted them to me so that was nice. Since then I have been real happy with the set. I have been wondering how this will transfer over to N scale myself. I would be real interested to see how well that goes.
Excellent review car the via set the looks awesome. On the other hand sucks about the couplers. To me and other customers l would think the manufacturer would make it right on the couplers. Light flicker that sucks specially, when you pay $150 per car. Other manufacturers hundred dollars to 150 for top brass equipment. Buchaman needs to come to a better cost for the consumer. And a replacement coupler. I can now see why some people only got the locomotive.
Not a Canadian or Via modeller but where’s the non-powered end unit at bringing up the unpowered end of the train? Seems like that’s pretty important to having a fulfilled train set?
Rapido’s first LRC run was pretty bad too, my Kato F40PH couldn’t pull 3 LRC cars on straight level track. As bad as the Athearn bi-levels were my Atlas GP40 was able to pull 6 of them. ;)
Bought the locomotive, a little bit overpriced but overall a nice purchase. The cars on the other hand are very overpriced for what you get so I will pass on them until another manufacturer makes them or Bachmann lowers the MSRP to under $100 cdn.
Commenting based on the electronics point, I would say that the Bachmann VIA cars seems to have a little capacitor, but the design is not much effective for non-perfect layout. Plus it seems too bright. Rapido cars have better dimmed lighting. But that noise from capacitor is a little questionable...it should not have any noise...
Great review. Its also been my experience that Bachman is not up to the standard of Rapido. I really wish that Jason and the gang in Markham had gotten the license to manufacture these instead of Bachman. Just my two bits.
I can do without the cars. give it time they will be running with the regular VIA cars, in the real world. so I will just do that now. Charger, well for 400$ not going to say must have but anyone that does get it will be super impressed. like they say, it is your layout do what ya want, so pull box cars with it.. lol
I have my Bachmann Siemens Charger and 4 cars. Adjust your coupler Kris, with a coupler tool. I switched out the couplers to the others provided. I had No issues, and worked 100% while be being pulled by the Charger and being pushed. In regards to comparing these Bachmann Venture cars, I feel your being unfair, as you're not comparing it to another manufacturers Venture coach or Charger.
No other company makes venture cars so I did what I felt was the next best thing. The comparison of passenger cars. If anything it’s not fair to put a Bachmann up against a Rapido but this is a good way to compare what you pay and what you get. I feel I covered it. No couplers it came with worked. The extra they came with were even worse. I know there are some sets that are good and work right out of the box and I was baffled by the fact that mine did not. A bunch of others have come forward and reached out with similar issues as well so I’m not the only one. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. -Kris
@@bufordhart730 I 100% agree with you. There are a few of us that had the exact same issue. I ended up replacing the coupler on all the cars with a set from Rocco. Then I changed the loco coupler with a kadee. It connects to a euro kadee. Sounds like a lot more than what I had to do. I can get you part numbers if you like….
@@bufordhart730 go with the Roco 40270 couplers. 2 sets per pack. Might need 2 pack for all 4 cars. If you are in the gta there are a couple shops that still have some. Was like $35 shipped for me. Then from there you will need the kadee euro. Not sure of the part number but there are 2 different types. There is a short and a long. I think I did the short because my curves were 29”+
For the price it is not worth it, in my opinion. Got to run one at Sparkys. All the metal wire details are not painted, making it look cheep and unfinished. The inside lit walkway details are a sticker not even 3d molded part. This is not worth more then a Rivet Counter Scale Trains or Athearn Genesis loco. Especially when you can get way more detail. Also, this thing won't pull more than 6 passenger cars up grade. For this price and the pricing on the coaches. It is a pass for me. I wish Rapido got the licencing deal for these. Even with their quality control issues, they would have done a much better job and, for a bit less MSRP. The loco should be 299 Canadian in line with certain Bowesers and Intermountains and the cars should be in the 89 to 99 dollar range because they have interior lighting. Other then that these are Walthers Mainline quality passanger cars. That go for 75 to 79 Canadian.
