My Lionel and Aristo engines pick up power through the wheels, my USAtrains and LGB have the pick up shoes, do you have an opinion or pros and cons of either design? I know when the shoes get caked with track dirt, the resulting jerkiness not only causes derailment, but that added resistance can make them hot enough to deform plastic trucks. On the other hand, my USAtrains engines can run very smooth at slow speeds, and I like their detail.
Stack
Hi, Give me a loco that picks up though the wheels, they run better as you say shoes are a bit jerky. So I will go with wheel pick up[:)]
Well to be honest I have to say that all my favourite locomotives are made by “Kitchen Sink Engineering”. Although the total production is very low -I have never had an order turned down…
regards
ralph
LGB picks up through the shoes & the wheels.
I have Aristo, Bachmann, LGB & USA locomotives. LGB & USA have pickup shoes and electrical pick up though the wheels. I do have problems with crud on the pickup shoes & have to clean them with one of those LGB track cleaners or a green cleaning pad. I’ve made it part of my engine house servicing routine after a run.
As far as favoites I do like the USA locos, (4 GP9’s, an SP & WP pair each & a WP F3 AB set) the traction wheels make them great pullers on my 2.5% grades and good detail.
Rob
Hartland. HANDS DOWN. Their detail might not be as good as some, but their drive blocks are slap BULLITPROOF for bashin and scratchbuildin.
My first train run on an operatiung day, is always an LGB loco hauling my Aristo Track Cleaning car, the pick up skates on the LGB loco assist in cleaning the rails.
Well you did ask. I’m going with MTH. I have several manufacturer’s engines ( USA,BACH,HO=Atlas, Broadway Ltd, Proto,etc.). I have to say that after 5 years, these (MTH) run solid, have great features built in, and are my favorite! Joe P.
I hope to upgrade my other engines to MTH control someday, and run them too.
I have to agree with enginear , my MTH stuff is the most fun to use . Second would be my USA TRAINS collection . They run real nice and they do pick up from the wheels as well as the pick up shoes .
PIKO- They’re still made in Germany [:)]
I would have to say LGB… These loco’s are work horses and never die, I can’t wait till there shipping LGB back to America… Jack, as far as PIKO goes, will not own one until they make a United States phototype loco… My next loco’s that I like would be Hartland Locomotive Works…
I’d have to say that my favorites by far are the American Mainline Proto-Types made by Aristo and USA, Diesels from the late 40’s and up, as well as heavy Steam, and yes, the MTH engines are quite nice Too…Their Hudson Steamers would maybe pull better with a set of traction tires though…I own 4 of them.
Byron C.
Keep your eyes and mind open then!
Jack,
Glade to see your see you are still working with them and not fired. Bad times are around every where.
Toad
Keep them rolln Jack [tup]
LGB was great but is now kaput, who knows when, if, and in what form it will return. My kitbashes with Aristo bricked geared locos are outstanding performers, so are l my Hartland Mack based bashes. Only have one USA bricked bash, its fine, some of my Bachmanns are the most finiky, go figure.
My [2c] on Piko:
Piko has to have more than just 2 European based modern engines if they want to make a dent in the US market, I know about the Germie 0-6-0T they are planning, great for the Euros, doesnt do anything for me. They need to decide if they are going to make an effort in the US market, which camp are they going to cater too, persoanlly I think I already know, based on the current offerings and with the majority of the US market leaning ever more toward the 1/29 camp, I’m pretty sure us narrow gaugers will once again be left out in the cold as the large scale world continues to move towards standard gauge 1/29 scale and Piko will go with them, cant say I blame them, all the fuss in narrow gauge between the 1/20 and 1/22 crowds chose one and PO the other, so stuff both and go for the mass market. Hopefully whatever they offer will be affordable for guys like me to bash the begeezuz out of them into my chosen scale.
Vic,
You need to keep your eyes and mind open as well. PIKO would be foolish to ignore this market.
Hi Toad- can’t get rid of me that easily! I work for Silvergate Distributors now.
I think Piko would fare well in the US market, but not by releasing “yet another diesel.” There is a dearth of small standard gauge steam locos that I think needs to be filled. I do hope they take the care to properly state the scale of their models, though. When the boxes are marked “1:22.5,” and the models are of German standard gauge equipment, I have to scratch my head. The waters are easier to navigate when accurately charted. All the other major players are getting very good at that. There’s no reason for Piko not to.
Later,
K
Out of my Bachman, Aristo, LGB and USA engines, the ones with skates/pick up shoes run the best, and also the heaviest ones run great also. Aristo SD-45, LGB Mallet without shoes run very well. All with shoes run very well.
My poorest runner was a critter, but when coupled with a car with additional pickups, it run very well.
Jack -e- poo,
Don’t want to get rid of yeah, your our inside man!
Toad -e- poo
Didn’t mean it to sound like you wanted to get rid of me. I was just turning a phrase.