I like that Chuck. That about sums it up with the electronics in trains these days.[swg]
Go into your purchase with an open mind. All the train companies make wonderful products. I prefer to run Lionel and Williams, but I have MTH, K-Line and RMT as well. All are about the same as far as reliability and quality.
And the dish ran away with the spoon?
Jim
I tell “new” people that they don’t have to worry about buying “junk” in “O”, unlike some of the “starter sets” you can find in “HO”. Joe
I run both MTH and Lionel. Have both the TMCC and DCS, and can run the MTH in conventional mode with the TMCC and new ZW with the 180 watt blocks. All run great and the MTHs smoke up a storm,cough cough.
laz57
I purchase by roadname only–Southern and N&W plus, stump-pulling articulateds of eastern roads. If its the roadname I want and usually have long waited for, I ignore the cost and whatever Chinese Company that made product for our train importers.
John nailed it. I own locos from all 3 (MTH, Lionel, and Williams). All have their advantages and disadvantages. I also like MTH because of their ability to run TMCC with the DCS remote and I don’t use conventional locos very much.
Dep
The best trains you can buy are by Lionel made between 1948 and 1957. After that, everything went downhill.
[#ditto]
I’ll agree, except that
I’d say 1946 instead if 1948, but that basicly applies to 2 engines instead of the hundreds available each year amongst the importers.
Probably 95% of what I run is postwar or MPC era Lionel. The engines are cheap and reasonably reliable (no electronics to screw up), and the cars are cheap. I grew up in the MPC days of Lionel, so nostalga hasn’t been much of a factor in my buying discisions.
I do own a few MTH items (mostly their hot metal cars), a few newer Lionel products (more hot metal cars, and some other stuff like Thomas),and a couple of Weaver cars (reasonably priced, but look silly behind my o27 sized engines because Weaver cars are SCALE SIZED. I also own a few more pieces from other companies, but I’ll leave those out, as they are either no longer around, or I don’t own enough to comment on.
As others have said, it depends what you want your layout to look like. For me, its postwar/MPC Lionel on a very childish sceniced layout. If you’re looking for hirail, my rolling stock isn’t likely to cut it for you. If you don’t call me names, I won’t call you names.
If I was into scale O trains, I think a lot, if not most, of my cars would be Weaver, since on the O scale group of products, they seem to give the most bang for the buck. Heck, a lot of their scale sized cars are cheaper than the “traditional sized” cars made be their counterparts.
I’m truly impressed as to how civil this thread has stayed. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?
J White
I’ll second JW’s thought regarding extending that back to 1946. My very best post war runners are all 1946 models - 224, 221 and 726 - all silky silky smooth, quiet strong pullers.
Reading the threads the simple answer is read CTT, over the years they have given how to articles on how to repair numerous Lionel engineering blunders.From re-shimming motors to reversing wiring on smoke units. I have Weaver, Williams, MTH, Lionel and Atlas and have sold off all of my modern Lionel with the exception of Daylight F3s and GS4. When you have to have as many “how to fix your new thousand plus dollar locomotive” as they do it should send up a red flag. Sometimes brand loyalty can be blinding. Today’s Lionel is not the same company that it was in it’s 1st 50 or 60 years of operation and unfortunately never will be. Consumer reports has sections for reliability ratings, this market will never be large enough to have that kind of tool so the next best thing is to research it yourself and don’t be blinded by the color of the box. As Shakespeare said “What’s in a name”
If this statement is directed at me, I must say he asked for our opinions as to who makes the best trains. I gave him mine. I see nothing uncivil about it. 1948 to 1957 Lionel is my favorite. Beyond those years, things changed to my distaste and I don’t care for the stuff.
I doubt it was aimed at you, John. More likely at me [(-D]
Dep
The Postwar stuff that everyone sings the praises to was the “good stuff”. Lionel and Flyer and others made “junk” back in those days as well. It’s just that stuff didn’t survive and is now in land fills.
Issues of reliabilty with the new stuff should be tempered with the way the trains are being sold (mostly mail order and often shipped by dubious means) and the people who buy them seem to have trouble finding/reading the instruction manuals. These “toys” are way more complex and fragile than their 1950’s counterparts. If you buy a modern electronic wonder and treat it like a 50’s Scout you have no one but yourself to blame for your problems.
The good stuff is still the good stuff whether it was made 50+ years ago in New Jersey/Connecticut or six months ago somewhere on the Pacific rim. The junk is still junk. Do your research and remember, caveat emptor.
I’ve got to be the luckiest guy in the train history then. I must have 10 or 12 boxes of Lionel trains that had been sitting in my Dad’s attic for almost 40 years. 100 plus degrees in teh summer to 5 or 10 below in teh winter and everywhere in between.
Six or seven engines, a load of freight cars, operating accessories, a couple of zw’s etc etc, and everything worked perfectly.
What is the junk that in landfills?
Your dad probably had the “good stuff”. My uncle did to. I didn’t even know/see some of the lower end products till a few years ago. “Winner” sets, exploding Scouts, sets where the scintered wheels are disintegrating. Lionel and AF did make some fine products but there is no way that EVERYTHING they made from that time frame can or should be considered the last word in “quality”.
This thread has remained very civil and then we have this… for a first post non-the-less. It doesn’t matter to me who the manufacturer is, my decisions so far have been that I am moving toward command control and bought TMCC, so I haven’t purchased any MTH engines (although there are many that I like). I’ll also point out, since this was posted, that MTH had mega problems with PS1 locos as well. NO matter what you manufacture you are bound to end up putting some below standard product on the market, it is a fact of life and manufacturing…
BTW - we are attempting to refrain from posting ‘overtly negative generalistic’ posts as this…
Beyond that [#welcome] to the forum.
Lion, I’ve got some of both [Lionel and MTH]. They all have their ups and downs. TMCC is not easier to run from DCS remote. I know. I went that way first. Then got CAB1. No lashups with TMCC engines with DCS remote [unless you know how to cheat the system, I do]. You don’t get all your TMCC features wtih DCS remote. My problem with DCS remote is the delay. One command has to clear before the other one can be put in. So, I run both PS2 and TMCC engines and use both remotes [TMCC CAB1, DCS DCS remote]. Conventionals will run a lot better on a CAB1 with TPC than running them with DCS and its remote. I know, like I said, I did the DCS route first. Actually, I would not do without both systems.
I’m doin’ fine with neither . . . [:D]
DOUBLE THE PLEASURE, DOUBLE THE FUN
And the THIRD one on order!! I just love figuring out the new stuff and seeing the innovation. It makes me feel like ET, DATA…DATA…DATA… LOVE IT !!!
I run em all as many ways as I can… Conventional, TMCC, DCS, TMCCII The expiramentation is exhilerating!!!