There’s a lot of reading here, but what it all boils down to is that every manufacturer, no matter how highly regarded, can put out a stinker. Just the same as any autmanufacturer. You can get a good or bad anything at one time or another.
Case in point. A friend of mine and myself have a number of Atlas locomotives. Up until recently, neither of us have had any reason to be disappointed with their quality. While on a recent business trip to Florida, he picked up a Dash8-40CW in the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme. The last time I was over at his house he ran it for me. There’s a loud growling noise coming from somewhere in the drive train. He hasn’t torn it down yet to see if he can locate the source, but it just goes to show you. After about a dozen or more flawless models from them, he got one that’s not so great. I myself had an Athearn Genesis SD70MAC that was terrible. I worked on it for hours until I finally got the noise down to a more acceptable level. Then I sold it. My hobby dealer says that every once in a while they get a Kato unit that runs rough.
I’m sure there are always going to be models from any manufacturer that are poor quality. The problem is, if the manufacturers had to pay someone to sit down and go over every model with a fine tooth comb and reject each one with a defect, the cost would be prohibitive. I don’t know from personal experience, but I would guess that where these models and made, there is a short test track. Someone puts the unit on the track and tries to run it. If it goes forward and backwards and the lights work, it goes in the box. As far as noisy is concerned, it’s probably too noisy in the plant to tell.
Like it or not, that’s probably what they feel they can afford while staying within a certain price range.
Well time / cost restraints are certainly a big factor is anything relating to quality control. I work for our state’s Dept. of Revenue, people are shocked when I tell them that when I worked on processing tax returns we were supposed to process one tax return every minute - this is going thru a paper return by hand, checking for math errors, missing attachments, etc… (Actually 60 per hour was for the standard form, back then we had a short form and had to 82 per hour for them.)
I’m sure we caught most problems but I’m sure some slipped thru that wouldn’t have if we’d had more time to review them.
All of which is fine with me. I do have the time and inclination to try to fix any small bugs and would rather not pay more money for more quality control. Steam locomotives are expensive enough.
A friend is the service manager at a local GM dealership. Some years ago they got in a brand new Corvette that would barely run at all. Turned out the engine was assembled with no piston rings; none at all. $h*t happens !
ANY locomotive, by ANY manufacturer can be made to operate flawlessly. The key is YOU!
Are YOU willing to invest the time / effort / money to overcome the bugs that may, (or may not) afflict your model? Most, if not all the manufacturers will gladly replace defective parts - gratis. Exploded diagrams and parts lists are not hard to acquire, and should be saved. This is NOT Rocket Science. It should also be noted that you might actually, (Dare I say it?) LEARN something?
Or… would you just feel better complaining? Hmmmmmmmm???
I understand your point and it is a good one, however the manufacture should be very open to accepting the item back and replacing it free of charge. Now I have not had a defective loco yet, but I did have a defective Digitrax decoder. They replaced it and quickly too by the way however they did not reimburse for me to ship it to them. In the end, I paid more than MSRP for the decoder (with the shipping charges) and it wasn’t my fault. I think that sucks, IMHO.
Peter
Today’s engines have many more “bells & whistles” literly, than when I first started. Therefore, The more features, the more potential problems. Also 'it’s amazing how little time there is between new releases. Most all manufactures will make a defective locomotive right. If you check you will probably see that the cost is less today than it was in 1950, with alot more features. my first engine was a manyua shifter in kit form. My Dad put it together & it probably cost him 1/3 - 1/2 of a weeks pay. I’ll take the Good New DAYS.
True words of wisdom. I cahsed a problem for 2 mounths until I READ THE DIRECTIONS [:I][:I][:I]
If I listened to a gloom and doom man I would have trashed 4 engines I like but with some TIME, MONEY and the DESIRE to make it work I will.
Take Care
Some amazing locomotives have simple problems. Example: my brand new Atlas HO Scale AEM7 had only three driven axles. Not sure why, and I later sold it, but it couldn’t pull anything on level track and no reason in the world why it would have an axle that I could spin freely with my fingers. Atlas never responded after repeated attempts to figure it out.
Unless you are a collector and never intend to operate your locomotives, always test a brand new engine no matter who makes. I purchased a Stewart Alco 630 a few years ago and just put it away. When I set up a small test track to test a number of other locomotives I had purchased, I discovered that one of the trucks in this engine had jammed gears in it. It was impossible to reassemble the truck so that it would operate properly. Had I tested it when I purchased it, I could have returned and had it repaired for nothing. Now it will cost.