Is anyone familiar with Model Rectifier Corporation Platinum series of locomotives, re quality comparable to others on the market at the time?
Is the Platinum series something new??[%-)]I’ve never heard them called that. They’ve been closing out their locos on their web page. Last I checked they only had some F unit B’s left.
I asked about those a while back and the general answer was CRAP and don’t waste your money.
BLI has a single engine in what they call their Platinum series, and that is the metal PRR K4s.
I dont know of any MRC Platinum products.
Just the thought makes me ill.
Yeah, that’s what they’re called…Platinum series:
http://www.modelrectifier.com/train-controls/trains.asp
And that’s all they made…F series
Closing out of them now at a discount…so are they crap?
Looks to me like MRC is getting out of the model locos…but don’t know anything about them.
ok…just in case anyone is interested, I did google out some info…esp on another forum
http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=724
'nuff said
They do have a Platinum line. It seems to me that they are going to be similiar to Athearn’s Genesis line of F units. They have a website you can go to: www.modelrectifier.com
Jason
The only real similarities between the MRC Platinum line and the Athearn Genesis F units are that they are HO scale, they represent F units, and they have freestanding details.
The Genesis F unit is the Gold Standard of HO plastic F units insofar as protoype accuracy is concerned. The MRC model was an attempt by MRC to play in the same market space six years ago, but is wanting in a few areas.
At first glance, they went cheap on several of the paint jobs, settling for varying degrees of “close” on lettering styles, omitting colors or striping in some cases, and being very approximate in paint colors.
Looking at the detailing, the MRC model’s tooling, while not as bad as some F units that came before, is a bit coarse. Particular areas that come immediately to mind are the shape and position of the number boards, the tooling seam from the front of the cab along the edge of the nose and the protruding round caps on the radiator and dynamic brake fans. The whole thing rides noticeably high over the trucks, too.
If those details don’t concern you, don’t let me stop you from buying one. You can certainly do much worse for $20.00, but don’t expect it to be anywhere near as nice a model as the Athearn Genesis.
Before the Proto 2000 F7 came out, I would have agree’d with you as I own 10 Athearn Genesis F units and they are very nicely painted. They do replicate many prototypically accurate phase details - for example the Rio Grande F9m is an odd mix of F9 side details but F3 roof details as accurately portrayed in this model:
But the F7 coming from Proto 2000 will “one up” the Genesis model by providing additional “missing” prototype details like the extra grab irons and nose MU receptacle left off of the Genesis models:
I agree, the MRC F unit was a half baked attempt to offer a premium F unit but it was only slightly better than a "train set loco&q
I dunno. It looks to me like they’re just clearing out the old stock, since these didn’t exactly take the world by storm. I think that I saw a total of two of these in hobby shops over the past six years.
I had a chance to examine the SOO model and was not very impressed. I thought the old BB Athearn model is a better example and how old is that?
The added on details seemed toy like. Perhaps with a better paint job and better scaled details it would be okay.
Jim
You’re forgetting one other similarity – the MRC engines were also rather high priced! Actually I saw one run and it seemed to be a smooth quiet runner. Issues of details and flexibility aside, the paint jobs are what made them marginal even as train set engines. To my way of thinking, the ideal train set engine is one you can still run without shame once you are more advanced in the hobby. The MRC C&NW and Soo Line paint and lettering jobs were simply uninformed guesses at accuracy, and not all that well applied to boot.
Dave Nelson
I think they also made a C420 back in the eighties or nineties. The F-units came later, they’ve been trying to sell off what they have for some time now. At first when MRC engines came out they were considered pretty good since they ran very well, but the problems (noted above) with accuracy and such I think came back to bite them, as people began to have more choices and were more finicky about detailing being correct.
I’ve never heard them called Platinum. I had one of MRC’s original F-series decoder-equipped engines. I ripped the decoder out, converted it back to DC block control, and gave the engine away because it was worthless junk compared to other brands. The basic locomotive itself was a Walthers Trainline model with a decoder that was dead on arrival.
I have seen these units and wasn’t impress…There is a lot of detail errors and IMHO very poor performers.
I was curious about the MRC Platinum series engines and bought a couple of them off e-bay cheap. The units are IMHO a step up from the old Blue Box Athearn units, they have dual flywheels, are fairly heavy and do run fairly well.
I would not compare these to Stewart, Intermountain or the Genesis engines, but for less than $20 I was certainly impressed.
Detail level certainly beats the old Athearn and Bachmann units.
Well here is an update to an old post. I bought several of these brand new MRC F7 locos some time ago, but have just now got around to converting them to DCC with an NCE D13SRPs.
Well, I have never been able to do hardwiring so quickly. These locos are all set up with a very useful circuit board with several tabs for soldering and/or quick connect caps. The incandescent bulb is easily replaced with an LED and the job is done. I completed two of the locos in an hour and a half. I just put the decoder on top of the circuit board with some double sided tape.
The units I got are excellent runners, very good slow speed right out of the box. They are slightly too high and slightly bright in their paint job, but for $15 ea. brand new they are great.
I have a three more to convert.
A somewhat humourous note: all the circuit boards contain a Chinese phonetic spelling of one of the words…spell em’ as you say em" I guess. Can you spot it? (not being racist here, btw …my wife is Asian)
Glay?
David B
I have one of them in SOO Line paint, and as commented earlier, the BB Athearn was a better paint model.
I wasn’t that dissapointed with the unit…and for that price on MRC’s website, and the price they go for on eBay (around 20-25) they aren’t bad models.
I liked the metal grills and handrails, which could save the kitbasher/detailer some time.
My biggest dissapointment was that it had a DCC decoder in it, and I run DC (this decoder would not work on DC) so I eventually cut it out.
Phil