I built a bunch of Athearn Blue Box Boxcars and equippted with Metal Wheels, KD’s; stock piled spares to maintin the fleet into the future. I spent X dollars. Rather inexpensive against RTR cars what with the plastic couplers that need converting to Kadee and slightly light weight.
At the end of the day should my train of these boxcars roll by, I hope you like them. Now… if I bought these boxcars from Intermountain, My wife would give me a hard time and there will be hell to pay when one realizes the amount at MSRP on the train.
I would buy Intermountain if funds are not an issue. Actually I do consistently buy Intermountain, just not as many at once.
Regarding engines, certain features must be present. All wheel pickup, can motor with flywheels, good low speed performance, front and rear lights plus couplers as well.
Once I get that written up, just about all of the tycos, Bachmann Standard engines and most IHC and other types of similar “Inexpensive” engines disappear from consideration. I look at BLI, Proto and a few others of top dollar engines and choose the best suited.
Sometimes pricing is a consideraton. One PCM P7 B&O pacific that has been announced two years ago at 400 dollars MSRP and yet to arrive was replaced by a Availible Proto E7 A-A set with QSI out of the factory for a few dollars less.
Maybe I will get the P7 engine but… probably from Trainworld or some place when they are blowing them out years from now… if such a thing ever gets built and shipped.
So.
Add Time and Availibility to the Product Consideration.
Those are great things to routinely do for your Athearn and MDC kits and will give you much more reliable operation. When I was in college or money was much tighter, I at least added KD#5 couplers, gauged the plastic wheels (and replace any wobbly wheels), gauged the coupler height and added weight if a car was very light.
If feel your pain. When I was married, my wife was overly strict with my train budget limiting me to $20 or $25 per month - which didn’t go very far even in the 90’s. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my hobby) that marriage went south and I"ve been living single for the last 7 years. Money has still been an issue but there have been times when I had more or less. Last few years I’ve been blessed and could afford a good deal of Intermountain and Genesis rolling stock. However, I realize there may come a day when I have a wife #2 and things will change again! (make hay while the sun shines!!!)
Yes, agree’d! Unfortunately some of the more costly loco’s still need some improvement in that category.
I recently bought a couple of new locomotives after about a twenty year absence from the hobby and would like to make a few observations. Most of my ‘better’ locomotives were Atlas and Athearn from the early 80’s with the rest being Bachmann and Tyco. I recently bought a Spectrum SD-45 and Stewart U-25-B and both are light years ahead of what I was used to. The Stewart runs smoothly and quietly while the Spectrum looks great and runs great (although not as quiet at the Stewart but makes up for it with better detailing). I’m not sure what so many people have against Spectrum as I’m very happy with the look and performance of my SD-45; maybe having been away from modern products for so long I’m more easily satisfied than I should be. I also bought a Stewart hopper car that just blew me away with its paint quality and details–my rolling stock is definately going to need an update. Now if I could only get these new locos to work with my Hornby Zero-One…
While this has been a standard discussion of putting locomotives into quality categories for reasons like “runs smooth”, “pulls well”, etc. and you get what you pay for. We have had these discussions tens of times, but none of it is answering the original posters question. The question is why does one run smoother, pull better, be more reliable etc.
I don’t know anything about the regular Bachmann line, but some of the other bottom of the line brands have a transversal mount 3 pole motor (some call these pancakes). These give power to only the wheels of the truck where the motor is. The Atlas type are going to be using precision can motors that utilize a precision gear system to transfer the power to all the wheels of the locomotive.
Here is a little back ground to help you understand those who have been less than happy with Bachmans “better” diesels over the past 15 years (both Plus and Spectrum):
For those who have been in the middle of the hobby over the past 15 years or so, they have compared Spectrum to a few other offerings and relative to them there have been some unsatisfactory factors. I have followed all of the major brands from the late 1980’s forward to the present and like most people, I expressed interest when a brand offered a diesel I needed.
For example, between 1989 and 1993 Bachman Spectrum produced a new “better quality” F40PH. Me being a fan of the Amtrak California Zephyr bought two of them. They had flashy strobe lights and a better looking body than the crummy versions available only by Life Like and Bachman in the past. After buying these loco’s I read the review in Model Railroader magazine (keep in mind MR mag is usually very generious in their reviews). The review noted the overall height of the F40PH was nearly a scale foot too low, the crude (by Athearn blue box standards) looking trucks were both a scale foot too close to the ends, making it nearly impossible to mount couplers for scale coupling distance. The pilot was the worst of all with a crummy looking plow and an ugly flat spot like it ran into a wall - not seen on the real thing, incorrect nearly flat profile. They didn’t run real great either and the shells was a bid crude by todays standards. FYI, Bachman Spectrum upgraded their F40PH a couple years ago with see thru grills and fans etc, but I still prefer the relatively inexpensive Walthers Trainline F40PH to it because the pilot looks better and overa