I have several locomotives that are close to 20 yrs old both Athern and Atlas and all still run great with no problems. A couple even were soaked after a water leak and still run like nothing ever happened. My new engines especially from Atlas seem to have gear problems in the trucks. I have read in other threads that other brands are also having problems with gearing etc. Does anyone else besides me feel that the older locos seem to hold up better than the new? I know there are complaints posted over on the toy train board that are similar. Are todays products of lower quality than yesterdays?
The easy answer is wait until the new locos are 20 years old and see how they run.
In general, I think locomotives and rolling stock are better than when I started modeling 40 years ago. Thinking in terms of the brands that serious modelers would buy, not train set models. There are better motors and finer details. Think of the “old brass” which was supposed to be the best, except that they would not run well until remotored and regeared. I have some old Athern diesels and they run OK, but would be better with a can motor. They do not compare to my Stewart, P2K, and Specrtum models, some of which are around 20 years old. But remember that the Athern ‘blue box’ locos are / where not in the same price range as the Stewart, etc.
If you look at the discussions about quality problems, it mostly relates to stuff made in China. You rarely hear about chronic problems with things made in North America or Europe.
I think some of the new stuff is designed better. (flywheels, all wheel pick up/drive) Only time will tell if the materials used hold up longer. Today’s details sure are nicer!
I would say both yes and no. While the old Athearns will probably run forever, they also sound like cement trucks with marbles in them and suck up to 2 amps of power to just move them down the rails. A modern Athearn (despite the really junky electronics they put in them) has much more precision gears and will quietly slip down the rails taking less than .25 amps. Hard to compare the two. The precision parts might break easier but they aren’t made for children throwing the thing into reverse at full throttle like they used to be either.
Sure and old Atlas will roll of the rails with no damage while a new one will loose several of its finely detailed parts. That is an improvement in the appearance that is probably not possible to replicate the sturdyness of molded on detail.
I have some Athearn BB locos that with just a little maintenance run as good as the day I got them, and they’re going on twenty some years old. On the other hand, I have some other locos that are relatively new that don’t run worth a plugged nickel, and some of them cost over a hundred bucks.
Wow, I have some 20 year old locomotives that I consider my “new” ones.
I have some 40+ year old Mantua engines that still run good, in fact I was just running several of them this afternoon. The mechanisms and overall design were a lot simpler (none have been converted to DCC), they were rugged and just seem to run forever if you take care of them. Some of my “newer” locomotives were built from Bowser kits, whose design is just as old as my old Mantuas and these seem to be just as well built.
Considering the price of some of these newer locomotives, the condition you describe is pretty pathetic.
Yes, Athearn BB ran OK on old DC layouts and if that is still what you are running, they will still run well. My issues are with the poor detail and most of all, the pitiful coupler housing which was and as far as I know still is a joke. They simply aren’t worth the effort to retrofit them with a DCC decoder. I’ve got a few dozen BB diesels and they are just gathering dust. Eventually, I might take the whole lot to my LHS and see if I can get a few bucks for them on the consignment shelf. They have no place on my current layout where BLI and P2K rule.
A high percentage of problems with currently produced models appears to stem from poor quality control, as well as a lack of robustness in parts/construction. While most locos today are far “prettier” than those of long ago, they can’t seem to stand much excessive/rough handling or operating. I’ll be rather surprised if most are still running well in 20 or so years, given how many I’ve seen with problems so far.
While old Athearns made a lot of noise and sometimes weren’t 100% accurate in their body shells, you usually couldn’t kill them; they were simple and bullet-proof, as well as very easy to service/repair, if necessary. This was also true of a several other company’s products. I personally have two pre-war HO Flyer Hudsons that verge on being antiques that I occasionally trot out and to this day they run like swiss watches. Likewise, I own several similarly operating Mantua steamers that are capable of out pulling any of comparable size/wheel arrangent of today’s. While rather hopelss at really slow speeds, it’s tough to get them slipping. Were they pretty, or super-detailed, out of the box? Heck no! But I can always count on them to run long and well.
To more honestly address the situation with older brass, examples up through say the mid 80’s were really intended as show pieces for the collectors and not really expected to be good runners without considerable fiddling, or re-motoring, by the operators.
While I will certainly agree that, in appearance, what is being offered today is light years ahead of locos from the past (anyone with half a brain would fully expect that, however), I don’t anticipate most to have exceptionally long operating lifetimes, judging by what I see in the way of reported problems. The biggest concern, I’d say, is that they are unlikely to have repair parts available
I have to disagree with these “statements of fact”. From the evidence I see - 1960s and early 1970s issues of Model Railroader - brass collecting didn’t take off until later. PFM was shipping Pittman motors to Japan to be installed in their Tenshodo and United imports. Akane and Gem ads of the era seem to me to be aimed more at the o
From my own experience I can offer that the wide-spread use of brass on layouts was common only for less than a decade following their appearance in the mid 1950’s and again after about 1990. In between those times the price of brass made them a collectible and as the prices steadily rose, fewer and fewer were willing to chance ruining their value by painting (not professionally) and running them. In fact, for a time brass locomotives were specifically recommended as an investment and many were purchased outside the hobby specifically for that purpose.
The fact that brass locos were selling increasingly as static art objects did not escape the notice of the manufacturers either. Although a few consistantly did produced reasonably well operating engines, a great many got quite sloppy about running characteristics…to the point where at least a couple of complete runs came into the country that were unable to turn a wheel under their own power! Other examples offered that I can recall could compete rather well with Athearn Hustlers for spee
From my own experience I can offer that the wide-spread use of brass on layouts was common only for less than a decade following their appearance in the mid 1950’s and again after about 1990. In between those times the price of brass made them a collectible and as the prices steadily rose, fewer and fewer were willing to chance ruining their value by painting (not professionally) and running them. In fact, for a time brass locomotives were specifically recommended as an investment and many were purchased outside the hobby specifically for that purpose.
The fact that brass locos were selling increasingly as static art objects did not escape the notice of the manufacturers either. Although a few consistantly did produced reasonably well operating engines, a great many got quite sloppy about running characteristics…to the point where at least a couple of complete runs came into the country that were unable to turn a wheel under their own power! Other examples offered that I can recall could compete rather well with Athe