Who’s the best and why? Say it here - everything from signaling to modeling to running fine tuned locos. What do you think is the absoloute best brand out there. [i know there is heaps and heaps but lets see who comes out as the favourite overall]
My favorite for detail and running properties is Proto 2000. For ease of maintenance it’s Athearn.
Atlas!
[#ditto]
WOW! Tough question…Really…
For dependability Athearn and Atlas.
Best detailed shell has to go to P2K.I overlooked the detail errors and went for the factory applied details for this question.The P2K GP7 overwhelms the Atlas GP7 as far as detail.
I won’t judge the other brands because I don’t own any of their products except for 3 Walthers GP15s,1 Bachman GE70 Tonner and 1 0-6-0T and 4 Kato GP35s.
A “Shame on you” goes to Kato…Why? Instead of being a minor player,Kato could become a major player but,they fail/refuse to take the needed action.
For looks, PFM’s United . For running, my Spectrums are very nice, as is my P2K and my BLI.
Atlas takes the cake here. I like Kato alot because of the drive though.
-Smoke
Athearn, hand’s down!![:D][C):-)]
Best $ for $ are the older Athearn Blue Box DC engines and cars. Pull very well, you can still get most parts and $30.00 to $40.00 new at my HLS.
I have all so had great luck with the prewalthers Protos DC engines. I have one Walthers Proto E-7 with sound. Runs well, takes a lot of power but pulls well. Only thing I dont like is the horn, just sounds wimmpy.
BLI steam with QSI sound. Over all happy with them. Had one go bad with in 2 hours, and one come in with a short. But the 4 of them I have now run fine. Love the sound and pulling power.
Genesis, maybe they have driffrent decoders than my Big Boy. Big Boy it self looks great and runs fine on DC. On DCC it is a driffrent story. Other thing about it is the tender pull’s like a brick, after I figuer that out maybe it will pull like a Big Boy should.
Bachmann steam, best engines $ for $ so far. DC only and with some simple work got them pulling some pretty good drag’s. They are GS-4’s and the $80.00 verson I will add.
Cuda Ken
The Showcase Line is my favorite - it’s over 50% of my engines and rolling stock.
Enjoy
Paul
I guess overall, Atlas. I can’t get warm and fuzzy with Athearn, had to buy their junk in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, as that was about all we could get. So I have a hard time in the 2000’s getting cozy with Athearn though I do have a few pieces.
Bob
First, talking all steam here. BLI, followed closely by P2K and select Bachmann Spectrum steam engines.
Ignoring price, and taking into account only looks and performance, I would have to give the overall nod to the Trix Mikado. Following closely would be the Lionel HO Challenger and the BLI range of models in steam. I really love my P2K Heritage Series 0-6-0 switcher, but is it a weak puller/pusher. If my criteria were reduced to only looks, it is the clear winner. Performance as far as pure switching is excellent.
So, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest rating, and with the two criteria, they go as follows:
Trix - 9/10
Lionel - 8/10
BLI - 8/10
P2K - 7.9/10
If we’re talking plastic models,
Diesels:
-
Atlas
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Kato
Steam:
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BLI & Trix
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Bachman Spectrum
Those would be my favorites, but I do have Athearn, P2K and others that perform nicely.
Its very difficult to pick a single favorite manufacturer simply because it takes so many of them to produce the various items I want for my layout. Since some of the buy outs have taken place, I can says Walthers would be my choice since I have quite a few P2K locos and cars along with Walthers cars and structures. But that’s not to say that the others, Athearn, Atlas, BLI, Branchline, Accurail, Intermountain, Red Caboose, Bowser/Stewart aren’t also my favorites. In fact, all of them (at least their websites) are in my favorites right now.
Rick
Would agree with Rick that I would add Stewart in there. This is a discussion that’s been brought up before and with similar results. But I have a bit of a pollyanna/glass half-full comment here. I think there are pros and cons with all of the manufacturers mentioned here, with pros far outweighing the cons. The bottom line is competition, which makes for a wider variety of quality choices; yes I know, there have been some buyouts/consolidations, but I still think this discussion demonstrates that we still have enough producers of locos in the hobby (well, at least in HO) to give us a pretty good variety of choices–course we’d all prefer to have more.
Jim
I favor EMD, and in the past 4-5 years ATLAS has done all those GP38s and 40s, SD35 and were on a Chessie kick with 2 no ea and unnumbered. I ended upwith over a dozen between the Chessie and B&O units they produced.
Besides runs of the road I model, The Atlas units run exceptionally well, are very dependable, MU perfectly, the paint and lettering is superb and the detail of the shell in excellent. Some of my Atlas units are pushing 5-6 years old now, run continuously at shows and I haven’t had one issue with any of them.
I’d have to say that for locomotives, P2K makes a great S3 switcher. the amount of detail is amazing, and the add-on details are great (although fragile). it has great slow-speed control with and MRC TECH2 powerpack. as for freight cars, i have tried quite the few brands and accurail and P2K are well detailed and they haven’t derailed (yet). Athearn makes some good running cars and kits. the kits are perfect for beginners. for track, Atlas takes the cake. they have all sorts of track sizes and types along with a wiring book and free track planning software. sorry, but i don’t have much scenery so as far as operating, this is just my [2c].
In N scale… hands down it is Kato.
Overall it’s Athern - they were the first to do a lot of things in/for the hobby since I started in the late '50’s.
Today, I like the Atlas locos and Athern Genisis
Bachmann Spectrum makes some nice cars & steamers [2c]
PS I forgot the best passenger cars - Rapido!!