These EMU's were excellent pieces of kit in their day. They could have their speed gearing altered for commuter running or long distance running, so they could run fast or slow. They even had versions fitted with a Diesel engine and could go and work branch lines as a two or three care unit such as the Hampshire thumpers on the Mid Hants Railway. And this model is looking great.

I really like how Sam actually responds to most of us, it's quite nice

Really nice review! I’ve got one in BR Blue & Grey. Just FYI, the buffers on the ends aren’t meant to be sprung. They’re retracted and only pulled out if needed to be hauled by a loco in case of failure. The single sprung buffer in the middle is there to stop the coaches from banging into each other.

My instructions stated when you take the body off, pull out the handrail part on the rear of the car first. I also found it was easier to couple the units together using pin nosed pliers.

Down here in deepest, darkest Kent the EPB's (Electro Pneumatic Brake) were always 2 car sets often coupled in multiple up to 8 car trains. They had the motors at each outer end of the 2 car sets, deep sprung seats (cut Moquette clothe), 1 lavatory between the first and second class and the most sublimely comfortable ride. Us school kids loved them as the Guard could not get between the sets so anarchy reigned. They had varnished wood, string and cast aluminum luggage racks. Thanks for bringing back some memories from the 1970's Sam. Great work as ever.

Very good review Sam . I remember using these trains from London Waterloo about 40 years ago.

I would give these a 8/10. Love these things, bring so much character to railways and always run amazing these models do! Really does bring the feel of the Southern Railways third-rail network to life on a model Railway!

Hope this helps. The cars are using the rail as the ground. the 2 contacts are the lives. One for the lights one for power

Excellently thorough, Model traction review, lad! Great Work Sam! (I love transit systems; Model NYC subway).

Sam, I suspect the electrical connection to the dummy car carries the +ve signal for the interior lights and hedlights, and the -ve will be provided by a diode bridge into the rails via the dummy car pickups. Neat trick!

Slightly right with your initial history, the Class 416/1 EPBs were rebuilt SR 2-NOL Units, using the underframe bogies and electrical equipment, however 416/2 EPBs were built brand new by British Rail. You can tell the difference as 416/1s look like Bulleid Coaches.

There were two varieties of this class. There was a second build on ex-SR underframes with SR Bulleid style bodies (with small windows over the droplights in the doors). Some of the SR-style units were fitted with window bars and used on the Broad Street-Richmond/Euston Watford services when the class 501 sets were withdrawn around 1985. Trouble is they need to run on track with a third rail for real authenticity.

As always, a great video Sam. BRILLIANT colour, i adore green. ♥️♥️♥️♥️ The price ia extortionate . Bachmann must think we are all lottery winners. I enjoyed this video immensely, thank you Sam 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🚄🚅

Very good review Sam.

Sam, good review buddy after closer inspection I've noticed an extra coupler on the end of the unit set. Couldn't you add some extra coaches to make the passenger EMU longer, and if so where would one purchase extra coaches for that?

Sam I’ve already got this one and when I saw it I knew you were going to give it a decent score

Knuckle coupler?! How dare you! It’s a buck eye in the UK! 🤪 Also, the buffer in the middle I believe is for damping on the two coaches together, though realistically (on the model at least) it’s not needed as the drawbar is solid anyway. Quite surprised you’ve never seen them electrical couplings before though as they’re obviously as old as the model. They’re the worst system Bachman ever came out with Great video as always though and totally agree with you on the price.

Hey Sam yesterday me and my dad finished building a gauge master brand dockyard crane.

Great content! 🤩

I remember these in the early 1960s.From school in Datchet to Windsor and Eton Riverside.

The whole history of Southern (and pre-grouping) electrification around London is fascinating. I suggest a good starting point for research would be the 3-SUB units and later, the 4-SUB ones. There are a multitude of types but those two classifications provide a good entry point for further study.

great to see a emu reviewed, must admit i do miss the old british rail slam door trains, or as we called them slammers

I remember riding on these on the Wimbledon - West Croydon line when they were known as 2EPBs. The slang name for them was 'Chalkies' not sure why but I remember the instructions at Wimbledon to 'Shunt the Chalkie up & over' at Wimbledon to move the train from the arrival to departure platform.

As a child growing up in Slade Green and my father being a train driver based as Slade Green bring back fond memories. Riding in the cab was always something special, especially when it was raining, seeing it arch. It is a shame they didn't do the 415, but I guess you can't please everyone, shame they could have modeled a dummy buck eye coupling.

looks great, i have a soft spot for commuters from all the yrs using nyc subways

Awesome video today Sam beautiful modle might have to get one for the right price

The model doesn't need sprung buffers at the ends of the unit - as, in real life, the buffer plates were normally kept retracted (same as with Mk.1 coaching stock), with inter-unit coupling done using the Pullman rubbing plate and buckeye coupler. For coupling to a locomotive, the buckeye coupling was dropped, exposing a normal draw hook (a screw coupling was carried in the guard's compartment), and the buffer plates were pulled forwards and saddles (carried on brackets adjacent to each buffer, and retained with a chain) were fitted on top of the exposed pistons.

Looks like the lighting in the dummy is getting power from the track, but getting a control signal via the coupling. Maybe there is a small electronic circuit involved?

These a super! I'm only at the unboxing part of the video but the livery is amazing- now we need a weather's version!

The un-sprung buffers are actually more realistic for this unit cuz IRL, the buffers would be manualy pulled forward and a sadle would be placed over the buffer shank to stop them from going back in emergency

Tooling isn’t the only factor to take in to account when deciding price. Raw material, labour, shipping, marketing, market demand all go in to deciding sales price.

For a moment I thought you paid 90£ for some coaches And then I realized it was a loco 😂

I was a school prefect. Responsible for making sure the other pupils on these trains behaved. If you had the whole compartment though you could play tag and climb up into the luggage racks.

I'll give my full verdict at the end of the video but they look nice so far. They are very nice and detailed they would be great for a collector but not great for those starting of due to their price.

reminds me of the similar units that worked Wqtford Jct into Broad Street traoned as a guard on them in the lte 70's :) happy days

I have a 416 unit. However because I was young (about 15 I’d say) I stupidly bought the BR blue and grey livery with Network SouthEast livery. Not a bad livery but I prefer BR green to coincide with the steamers that ran alongside it. Nice review as always Sam. Kind Regards. Dan.

The cab interiors actually were that odd lime green colour so you can't complain about that!

Funnily enough, I have just this week bought a blue/grey 416 and was thinking, hmm, Sam doesn’t review many EMUs. Totally agree on price, I paid about 125. I don’t know how they can justify a price like the RRP, it’s not like the new 158 (which is a stunning model and worth the price).

The force needed for putting the coupling in can be counteracted by putting a finger on the pocket and pushing down, that keeps the pocket in place and allows you to get the coupling in easier, I learned this with the bachmann 411 which has the exact same design.

Hi Sam, another great video. Over the years you have questioned why Southern Railways and it's pre grouping companies did not have a lot of different loco types......... Over simple answer warning! Railways were set up to move vast amounts of raw materials to where they where needed to produce goods or to be used. Iron ore, coal, limestone, sand, clay, granite. Coal for fuel, coal for the production of steel and iron. Clay for bricks, clay for pottery. London and the South Coast had lots of large ports for this. The Midlands being land locked had no ports, North East/North West only had tiny fishing ports so...... canals were built. Freight train railways replaced canals. Passenger trains were a bonus in the Victorian/Edwardian period when giant mills and factories were built in the midlands/manchester/yorkshire/lancashire towns/cities and the middle class wanted to travel to Europe or the Beach. The working class wanted to head to the beach too so that lead to holiday passengers. In short, SR and LNER were not that industrially important. South Wales, the Midlands, North Wales. Lancashire and west Yorkshire needed lots of railways to transport goods and materials. The North East had lots of industry but initially used it's ports to send goods down to London. After grouping; LNER was for rich people in London wanting to travel as fast as possible to their estates in Scotland and for sending fish and Kippers to London ASAP. GWR was Industrial transportation of goods to London and Irish to Bristol/Birkenhead USA bound. The LMS was the power house of railways, mass transportation of materials and goods from Glasgow to all the other important parts of Great Britain. The Southern did none of the above in any quantity of note untill The Great War (WW 1) and World War 2, then the hero/genius Oliver Bulleid came up with his incredible Pacifics, Light Pacifics and Q1 designs that cost very little. In post war years suburbanisation around London started and the need for commuters was met by 3rd rail electrification. Where 3rd rail electrification was problematic DEMU's and Diesel Electric/3rd rail electrics were used, but lots of 3rd rail EMU's was the norm. Sorry for boring you

Regarding the electrical connection between the cars I have had experience with a Bachmann Class 101 DMU set. They also had the electrical connecting drawbar. It only connected the lighting between the cars. I went and installed pickup wires to the bogies of the non-powered car and connected them to the powered car bogies so all wheels picked up electricity for the motor/decoder.

Hi Sam. If my memory serves me correctly, there were more 4-EPBs with 2 x 4-EPB providing the most common 8-car length. A 2-EPB could be added to deliver a 6-car train or even 2 x 2-EPBs to create a full train.

I picked one of these up locally for the equivalent of 120 pounds and I thought that was fair enough. At the RRP I'd never have considered it. The coupling and body removal are the worst things about it for me. I managed to break the handrail off but was easily fixed. Good review Sam .

There were different versions of these units depending on there purpose. 2BIL, 2HAL and the later 2HAP units were for outer suburban use and had 250hp motors. The 4LAV also had the 250hp motors. The Brighton Belle units only had 225hp motors as did the 6PUL and 6PAN units as these worked the fast trains to the Sussex Coast. There were also some 4COR units that worked from Waterloo to Portsmouth and on the Mid Sussex route to Portsmouth. The suburban units were mainly 4SUBs of a variety of designs and fitted with 275HP motors to give good acceleration to the heavily loaded coaches. I hope that this has wetted your appetite. Bye from Ian.

The rear destination blind should be red - quite a challenge when you reverse the direction of operation

I think the destination board was white and would appear what is now cool white at the front. How did it cope with the power car pushing the coach on the curves rather than pulling?

Hi Sam, another nice review. I got two new at £110 each just over a year ago - certainly are nice models and excellent value for money at that price. Had to fit a 21 - 8 pin converter trim down the PCB edge as hard up against the motor cover, then in went a GM DCC29 chip for each, runs beautifully shed loads of power in either direction and no problems on 1:25 test gradient and my testing 14 5/8" radii. Yes sometimes things can be a bit difficult to take apart, but hey we are modellers and as long as nothing gets broken in the process then I can handle the occasional "difficulty"; great you highlight though. Certainly overpriced (for me at any rate) at circa £200 and totally concur expectations go up accordingly. Just see prices being driven up across the board due to supply and demand as result of the pandemic and perhaps some opportunistic pricing might be at play too. Stephen

I have these as they make NSE livery versions and other similar classes, But the lights don't work on dcc correctly like what you said any thoughts.

Hi Sam, So you think £220 RRP for a 10 year old model is extortionate? Absolutely agree! Hornby (with their design-clever) and Bachmann (with their sheer out-and-out greed) seem to be operating some kind of duo-oply within the UK and need investigating by the DTi’s Monopolies & Mergers Commission, especially as both manufacturers appear to be working together to stifle other smaller manufacturers, or simply put them out of business. Good on Hattons and Rails of Sheffield in standing up to them. As to Bachmann’s EMU RRP’s, just take a look at the recently released 4-BEP. This is a 4-CEP (again, like the 2-EPB, about 10 years since introduction so the bulk of R&D costs already covered) but with ONE trailing coach altered to form a Trailer-Buffet, yet Bachmann are looking for a RRP of £499.95!!! £150-£200 maybe as it is non-DCC, but £500!!!! Would love to run a blue/grey 4-BEP with my Kernow 4-TC, but simply refuse to play Bachmann’s extremely exploitative and expensive game :(

These units had a very long lifespan and I think they were still running into the early 2000's under the Network Southeast company. Unfortunately they have all been replaced but I am sure there are a few preserved one of which i think was part of the Coventry Electric train museum collection which was forced to shut and sell its rolling stock off. The one EMU is now going to be part of the one to one collection next to the Hornby museum.

I have the Bachmann class 411 EMU 4 car set which also has the 8 body clips and they are so frustrating because if you un-clip one, when you go to un-clip another one, the card keeping the other clips undone falls away and they clip back together. So frustrating, why they don't use screws I don't know.

Please help me....what is the difference between railroad and railway models as I have been told there is a quality difference??

Got to love a good 2-EPB (class 416) in green!

When u add coaches what happens to the lights????

Hi Sam. ive been pondering over the lights and how its been done. i believe the 2 pins on the drawbar are the negative pins for the headcode box and the inteerior lights. (one pin each) and usually in a setup such as that mainly n scale the comon returns through the rail AKA the positive pickup. hope this helps

They did have fluorescent light in the 1950s so cool white for the signage might be okay. If the motor car was not able to move with power from the motorless car alone, there is no through connection from both rails...? So there is one rail and one lighting power coming through?

Hey Sam, you think you would 3d print an engine or a medium sized coach?

I think it’s time for you to try Bachmann’s new class 158 or 150 the prices of those are sky high. Brilliant review mate 🙂

Hi Sam. To extend this unit to 4 cars you would need to aquire another motor car and discard the un-powered driver coach. Acquiring two more coaches an a powered coach without a motor would leave you seriously out of pocket. A 4 car unit should be created by the manufacturer! The Hornby 2-BIL and 2-HAL units are very powerful and would form the basis of a realistic 4-LAV unit as used on the Brighton line. I know that you are too young to have seen the EMU's of the Southern Railway and BR Southern Region but there are plenty of books available. I have tested the pulling power of the 2-BIL and 2-HAL Hornby driving cars and it is about 10 to 11 coaches. The Brighton Belle motor coaches are equally powerful. Bye from Ian, a resident of Crawley Sussex.

good up date keep up the good vids

For a moment there, I thought I was seeing runaway coaches on the loose...another great video, Sam!

You should check out how rapido hides the motors inside their RDCs

Hey Sam, I found your channel earlier this Summer as I started an office internship, and watching/listening to your videos have made the days fly by! You have some of the best quality content on all of KZfaq, and I’ve learned a lot about how to care for my own American locos through watching. Keep up the great work!

There is an interesting anomaly with the 416 2-Epb's. Some of them were not Originally Southern Region units. They were rather similar units that were used on the South Tyneside 3rd rail. The main difference was that the South Tyneside units had much shallower underframes (leading to a driver nickname of "The Twisties"!). They didn't last quite as long as the SR ones, but still put in a very decent length of service. The South Tyneside units were transferred to the Southern Region in the mid 60's.

Multiple decoders are NOT required - the electrical connection being via the coupling bar, as per all other Bachmann units.

Hi Sam, Yes very nice, Could do with one, All the Best Brian 🤗

You are one of the best people alive, I am sure of it.

Hi Sam Just a suggestion but you could have a branchline that goes up to a small station that you use for DMU's/EMU's. It could also have a third rail along it

Another interesting and fun video.

This could go either way with Bachmann look forward to seeing your outcome sam

Sam, how about a video about various manufacturers best products. One may do EMU best, another steam, another coaches &c. You could come up with the best of each manufacturer by type using your past ratings.

I got the BR Blue version when it came out a number of years as I used to travel to school on these very units - it is a very good model. I purchased a standard 21 pin Bachmann decoder, they normally work fine with my Hornby Elite controller but this time the combination just wouldn't work. I ended up putting in a 21 to 8 pin converter and using a Hornby decoder and it runs perfectly. Later I put the suspect 21 pin decoder in a Bachmann 37 and it worked perfectly with the Elite, I have no idea...

Got my BLI Brass Hybrid C&O L1 4-6-4. It costs way more than the 416 but it's a beauty.

What I'm waiting for is a Bachmann class 204 demu. I have never really liked models of electric trains on non-electrified track.

I find DMUs and EMUs to be very interesting creatures. Here in the US, we had Budd RDCs and Japan has very cool KiHA DMUs.

If you ever want to look into American diesel locos with high detail, the Proto 2000 FA2/FB2’s are some of the best that I’ve seen

Very interesting! It seems like a British counterpart to the American Doodlebug, and I do like those. What exactly is the electrical coupling for though, if it doesn't let one car operate from the electrical power of the other?

Hello Sam great video

I got a couple of 2-cars and a similar 4 car unit. For the couplings use long nose players to attach, then leave permanently attached which is fine for the 2 cars but requires special transport for 4 cars (or a large fiddle yard). Running qualities of all units are excellent. I do wish reviewers would not complain about seeing the motors in the dmu/emu windows. This is driving manufacturers to install very small motors below the chassis which leads to failures. Compare the old Bachmann 158/159 dmu with large central motor with the new 158/159 with tiny motors. Think about running properties, not only appearance when it comes to motors. As for price, well a loco is typically £150 these days and coaches at least £30 each so £220 for a 2 car dmu is high but not so unreasonable.

Hi Sam, I hope you're having a great day, and you don't mind helping me with a few questions. I'm looking for a 6 car OO gauge model of a BR Class 201 DEMU (Hastings Diesel) in blue and grey BR livery, with a very high spec, for example I'd like to see the orange curtains, an accurate 1st class carriage, the triangle signifying where the guard's compartment is and hopefully the train number 1001 on the cab, because it's the preserved one. Thanks for your help, Simon.

I mean, with the pandemic and brexit I would expect prices to go up a bit… but double?! What are they on? Is it an experiment by Bachman to test customers? “We can take a hit to experiment. Let’s see how much we can overcharge customers and still get away with it.”

You get a lit powered locomotive and a lit coach. 100RRP might be a tad unrealistic but 200 is certainly too much. I think somewhere in the middle would be reasonable. Nice things though!

Sam , there are 3 conducters the track is the 3rd ???

Looks like the torsion bar between the axleboxes is broken (12.48) on the bogie you showed us.

Yeah, £90 does sound reasonable for this loco. Also, when I saw this in your thumbnail, I thought it was the SR version, which I would love to get. But aside from those couplings, it does seem like a decent train.

Next time you show lights on a model could you turn lights off or film it at night. It’s quite hard to see (possibly because I’m using a phone).

Good review there Sam it looks great and to me it is worth every penny bachmann do get it right with their diesels and electrics

I love old EMUs! I've always lived near a merseyrail line and they sound fab! Shame they are getting replaced soon 🤮 All this model needs is better detail really!

Is a leader a good locomotive to see in this? I understand those locos were not particularly good…

A work colleague of mine turned out to be a huge model railways collector. Eg when the wood box limited edition Blue Peter came out he bought five. A collection of 2000 or more mint boxed locomotives. However when the Bachmann EMU models came out , they just looked like an expensive coach set to him, so he did not purchase any. I think this much lower level of interest outside the UK is getting reflected in the comments. I mainly purchased the 4CEP set because it was reduced here to $125 to try to clear them out. When I told my local shop of the new similar four car set price of 450 quid by Bachmann nearly two years ago they did not believe me, then thought it was a mistake.

When I heard you say the price, my eyes rolled so far into my head I could see my brain and aloud I said, bloody Bachmann, they're at it again, if it were a 415 I could maybe justify the price but not a 416

You should try one of Bachmanns newly tooled 158s, they're quite expensive but are worth every single penny. Got two of them in fact!

Be good to see review of models of the most expensive and cheapest 00 models of diffrent makes great video Sam.

Can you get the 416 class in N gauge. thanks alan

Thanks Sam! Your videos have been wonderful positive entertainment and info- tainment for the Covid era. After a year and a half out of work, I am finally heading back to my ship gig. This means that wifi will be BAD so streaming videos will be a rare treat. When I can, I’ll binge watch and like and comment to help out your metrics lol! I can at least like and read the comments and save watching for vacation time. Again, thanks so much for your channel!!

i think you should turn off your lights so we can get a better look at the on board lights

Excellent, unbiased review Sam, definitely one to miss on the basis of needing a can opener to get into the thing. Its time these manufacturers upped their game in terms of the products being more user friendly with clearer instructions. Maybe the inclusion of a link to an online in depth video user guide should be a consideration by manufacturers.

So Today me and my dad got some small stones from the hobby shop that I wanted to use to fill up some rolling stock to add weight and make it look more real, but I want to know for sure if it’s okay to do this or not so can anyone help me answer this question? Thanks.

Hi sam, just finished primary school moving onto secondary in 6 weeks, anything for 10 pounds that you recommended buying for my layout

Weren't these things separated by partitions into separate compartments corresponding to the doors .... axed after a woman got attacked and she had nowhere to escape to? Have they actually modelled that in the non-powered car?