I would have to go with K-line because of there great prices, innovative ideas, and great details.
LIONEL.The’re what I started with and have always enjoyed.
Ed
No favorite at all. They all are just fine, and all of them produce great products, along with an occasional dud. I have locomotives and cars from ALL of the major (and not so major) O gauge manufacturers in my collection, and will continue buying based on specific product, not on maker. I have a sentimental attachment to Lionel because that’s the brand I grew up with in the 50s, but that in no way influences my purchases of contemporary trains.
I buy trains that I like, in the roadnames I like, no matter who makes them. I will NEVER buy into that blind brand loyalty thing because that would simply restrict me from obtaining the variety of products that best meet my hobby interests and needs.
I’m perfectly content to leave the banner waving to others.
My lame reply: any one of them that makes what I am interested in at a price I can afford. I just don’t have any brand loyalties. Hard to imagine not buying something I want just because company YYY makes it, and not company AAA.
THE LIONEL CORPORATION, NEW YORK, NY, USA.
May you rest in peace. We miss you!!!
[#ditto] I have to agree,
Good ole’ American made LIONEL Trains.And American made Marx and Flyer.
I have purchased some overseas LIONEL, as well as other makes.But my favorite still is quality made in the U.S.A. . [8D]
Yep, I feel the same way.
Lionel is my sentimental choice since that’s what I grew up with. I always thought that American Flyer was pretty cool back then, but I never owned any Flyer as a child. It was Lionel that later drew me back into the toy train hobby and that’s why I buy mostly Lionel Post War Celebration stuff now. It takes me back to my roots.
Jim
Lionel is my favorite, because they make a wide variety of styles and options, because it’s easy to get a free catalog, and because they’re widely available.
Ummmmmm…what happened to the thread about this that was started earlier today?
Lionel. My favorite flavor for O is MPC followed by LTI. Marx, in its 8-wheel, plastic varieties comes next. They are my favorites because my first trains were Marx and MPC. I still have them. They still run like champs. Of the modern companies, Atlas is the most intriguing to me, though I have yet to indulge.
That said, I also find in my heart a tie between Lionel and IVES for prewar Standard/Wide Gauge. Lionel created it. IVES made a great go of it in a tough spot. (Oddly, I have little interest in prewar, tinplate O.)
Lionel and I’m not even American born! THAT’S how much magic the name has (not as much as Hornby but close). I grew up in England and had schoolmates from the American air bases which is how I first heard of Lionel. Great big huge heavy metal engines that actually smoked and had whistles?! Cor! Expensive as all get out and too much for my Santa but I got Hornby O windup which was fine, I actually liked clockwork power.
For me when I re-entered the hobby some 16 years ago, K-Line was number one, and the clear majority of my brnad new purchases were K-Line. I have no allegiances though and will buy from anyone who happens to make something small enough without the electronic gizmos that looks right on my layout.
I do own many of the prior Industrial Rail company cars and am hoping Atlas wakes up and starts making some IR cars that haven’t been made by someone else in recent years - and finally gets some current modern roads on the cars.
I do like the current Lionel starter cars as they have improved greatly in quality. The selection and quality of the lower end locos still leaves much to be desired. After the single motored Conrail U36B offering from 4 years ago (when all others have come with dual motors for the same price) I said I would never buy another new Lionel loco until that Conrail one is offered again (or a NS one) at the same price point with dual motors. And I will stick to my words, and I’m sure Lionel will make this pretty easy for me to do too. Besides, there’s always more affordable postwar and MPC stuff.
And I think the award for best company of last year goes to RMT, and I suspect they will be in the running for my award this year too. Z-stuff is another innovative company with some very cool products for train layouts… just as important as the trains themselves. I have their little block signals and love them. What a sinch to hook up and use.
MTH has always been dead last for me. From the onset, Mike always claimed his Railking cars were not like the small shrimpy Lionel 027 cars in his advertising. Of course, I think MTH misses the point big time here… we 027 guys want and require smaller cars. Early on I’d be in a hobby shop and would hear other guys saying the same exact things I was thinking: these Railking cars are nice and well priced, but are too darn BIG! Rugged Rails was an afterthought to the Industrial Rail threat and the Rugged Rails line since has bee
The orginal American Flyer which is what I grew up with. I enjoy watching the older trains and accesories of my child hood. They have a fasanation to me that the newer trains do not have.
[#ditto] Couldn’t have said it any better !!!
Marklin, and I wasn’t even born across the pond! [;)]
Worldwide, the best known and longest existing name in toy and model trains! [:)]
LGB. I am too young to have a direct connection to Lionel of old. I did have an old post-war Lionel set when I was a kid and I loved it. But for my generation LGB stuff has been incredibly durable and bulletproof. With LGB currently in bankruptcy, they may follow the same path as the old Lionel Corporation.
Just one comment, Brian. I don’t think you’re compromising on quality. The compromises are in scale fidelity. Scale fidelity is NOT the same thing as quality, despite what some folks in this hooby–including manufacturers and product reviewers–would have us believe.
No favorites here - I like 'em all including the smaller players like RMT, Western Hobbycraft, Corgi (well, I’m stretching here), etc. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Atlas - I’ve been eyeballing their Trainman line - very fine stuff. I’m waiting for their take on the Industrial Rails trolley. As Allan says, they all put out good stuff (lots of it) with an occasional dud.
I am more partial to Williams or RMT right now than any other manufacturer, the prices are low and the quality is great!
Atlas has good quality but is very expensive. MTH has good quality a little less expensive than Atlas.
[2c]Lionel has had some quality issues as far as I am concerned with their locomotives and track switches[soapbox] in the past 15 years.
Post war Lionel is great but out of production!
Lee F.
As my grandmother always said: “That’s why they make blue chevrolets and green chevrolets, everyone’s taste differs.” The choices when I was a kid were Lionel and American Flyer, and even though I had a Gilbert Chemistry set, all my trains were Lionel. Took a really long sabbatical, and when I came back Lionel was in a major quality slump. I was complaining at my local hobby shop that the hobby had stopped being train operating and become train maintenance, and the dude introduced me to Mike. I immediately fell in love, and even though I hear rumours that Lionel has solved some of their quality control problems, I haven’t personally exposed myself to them in years–deriving most of my Lionel pleasure from repairing the crap they sold me in the eighties. It is absolutely amazing the number of things that can break on a late model Lionel.
So I guess I would have to answer MTH for reliability and innovation. My original MTH train is running around the christmas tree even as we speak, and the only maintenance it has ever had is a memory battery change every five years or so. Which reminds me, I just got notice last night that it is about due again.