Best Locomotive Brand

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Ive been looking into buying a locomotive preferably an sd80 or sd70 and i have been looking at different brands such as kato and atheran ect… and i was wondering witch brand mmakes the beat running and operating locomotive for you money. I own a atheran sd70 and im very happy with it. just wondering what other brands are good quality

2

Nothing beats an Atlas in my opinion. Plus you can get SDs with sound on board from them. I also really like my Kato. (My Athearn SD50 is nice, but I find I don’t run it as much as the Atlases or Katos since it’s not quite as smooth, and derails more… but it cost less!).

3

I was going to get a Kato Maybe off of ebay cause brand new it was a bit pricy ill look into atlas, heres the kato i was looking into http://cgi.ebay.com/KATO-HO-376346-NS-SD80-MAC-RD-7204_W0QQitemZ6035526018QQcategoryZ19134QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
is your atlas more or less detailed then kato?

PS i just looked on atlas site i didnt see any EMD’s or any sd70 or 80’s i might go with kato ill see if anyone posts anything else

4

The cheapest price I’ve found that same locomotive is $123.00, so the eBay “buy it now” price looks like a pretty gppd deal. I’d jump on it.

5

i saw one for 100 buy it now for the same locomotive im very tempted to get. on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/KATO-HO-376346-NS-SD80-MAC-RD-7204_W0QQitemZ6035526018QQcategoryZ19134QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

6

Gppd??? I meant good… Musta had on my dyslexic glasses…

7

I’ve never tried Atlas or Kato, but I’ve had fairly good luck with P2K and Athearn.

8

does p2k have good detail levels? im looking for something detailed and nice looking as well as something that runs well

9

I like atlas over the other brands… they run nicer and smother than athearns… i would go with atlas any day…

10

athereans are a bit rough moving i kno, i owned atlas before and they run quiter, but im pacificly looking for an sd80mac and kato has a realy nice one im probly going too go weith them there detailed, they run quite, powerful, a bit pricy but i think its worth it they look realy nice