Considering price, reputation, era of construction, etc - by far my worst TWO locos were the two Broadway Limited Heavy Mikados that I had to tear completely down and rebuild as if I was bulding a kit. And I had to make parts from incorrect parts because Braodway could not supply the right parts - these locos have been made by many different vendors for Broadway, and while the basic design is the same, there are about 3-4 different “versions” with slight differences.
As a side note, it is interesting to read others experiances and compare with your own.
I bought two Genesis Mikados, neither one has ever cracked a drive gear.
I have two Mantua/Tyco Generals, both run flawlessly and pull well.
I had a Lindberg switcher, it was too fast but otherwise ran fine.
And, of course this thread started with a “bad” piece of Bachmann, I have over 40 Bachmann locos and have had only three problem ones - all made good by Bachmann - can’t say that about Broadway.
A lot of locos people have mentioned are just train set junk, and that was known fact the day they were made - let alone now, 10, 20 ,30 years or more later - regardless of brand.
I don’t own any Athearn SD70 whatevers because I do not model that era, or collect anything outside my modeling interest, but every piece of Athearn I have owned owned was just fine - especially considering the price and era of some of it.
On the low end, you get what you pay for. On the high end you sometimes get an unpleasant surprise.
In the middle you often get sold value, even if it requires a little modeling skill to make it “perfect”.
Sheldon
