Hello guys, I was wondering what everyone’s opinion is on which manufacturer makes the best GG1in HO scale?
Broadway Limited Imports - if you can find any for sale.
Sheldon
MTH now has BLI’s vaunted GG1 tooling. I expect they run well. I have a Trix GG1 with an early LokSound decoder that works very well. It is all metal and drags bricks around my layout.
Crandell
Going through all the non-brass HO GG-1s:
Penn Line: All metal, shortened for tight curves, probably runs noisy.
Varney: Similar to Penn Line.
Rivarossi: Scale length, nicely detailed, probably a decent runner, but only one truck powered.
Tyco: Cheap toy all around. Not even close to realistic. One truck powered with paper thin gears.
Pemco: Nicely detailed shell directly copied from Rivarossi, uses a drive similar to Tyco’s.
Mehano: Uses Pemco shell, has an OK drive with cheap central can motor.
Mehano (revised): Same shell, upgraded drive with two smooth running motors and flywheels.
BLI: Excellent detail and metal body, as well as a smooth mechanism.
Trix: All metal and excellent detail, excellent drive with high quality coreless motor.
MTH: Same as BLI, but with a few extra features added.