I just found out that ROCO is going to release the Ontario Northland’s old TEE Train in HO scale. I’ve never seen or heard of anything positive or negative about ROCO so I’m looking for people’s experience, opinion’s etc about the quality of ROCO model trains.
General opinion : good to very good.
Here are some shots of the Dutch-Swiss “RAm” in its original TEE livery, just released :
http://drehscheibe-online.ist-im-web.de/forum/read.php?10,3412436
http://www.bahnforum.info/smf/index.php?topic=53625
MSRP is 359 euros ($495) with sound (ESU Loksound V3.5).
It is the first one to be out. Trix has announced one also, and another is promised by Railtop-Modell… (also to be released in Ontario Northland colors, you can see some shots of a prototype here : http://www.lsmodels.com/LS/Pages/General_F/Home_F.htm ).
I’ve never touched any US-based modell from ROCO but I own a lot of their German stuff.
I like the quality and details. They are my favorits on German layouts.
I have three Roco locos and several freight cars. They have run better then any of my American models. None of them have had any problems what so ever. The only think I can complain at is that the shells are hard to remove on them which makes maintenance a problem.
I have one American prototype (Alco S-4), and one European prototype (DSB MY-class) ROCO locomotives. They both look great and run great! Take the plunge!
Tom
Over the years Roco has manufactured some fine engines for various America companies.
I own yellow box Atlas, Model Power Sharks, Walthers SW 1 and FM switchers. All have excellent drives and the shells still look decent by today’s standards.
When released they were considered state of the art. I cannot comment on anything newer.
They went through a bankruptcy a couple of years back. I am not sure of the particulars of who runs the company now.
One thing you might want to consider is parts support: who, how and where.
On the European home page, a statement says they will no longer be able to accommodate requests for parts direct from end users. I sent a request to the US site and the response was the same.
I can order parts direct from Atlas, Kato, Walthers, Athearn etc, etc, etc. Why not Roco?
Jim
Roco was the only manufacturer of Norwegian wooden passenger coaches that I knew of back then, so I bought all five different types when they made a reproduction of the old discontinued models some years ago. They look great and run great, even through my sharp S-curves.
Well I just ordered two of the ONR TEE Trains. They look great so I hope they run as good as they look. These are going to look great sitting with all my other passenger equipment I’ve gathered over the years. Up next will be the Turbo Train in VIA and CN colours.
Well I have a couple of Roco-powered Walthers FM H-10-44’s from 15 years ago, they’re still among the very best running engines I have. Given that the quality of equipment that’s available seems to get better all the time, I doubt their quality has gotten worse in the years since then. I would bet you’re going to get some very nice running trains!! [:)]