Returning to Hobby got questions about locos - HO

Been out for a while, started back again 5 to 8 years ago had to put it on hold agin. Now the time may be right.

So:

How about a rundown of loco makers?

I bought an Athearn Genesis Mikado. Wow!

Than I looked at another older Mikado a Mehano in another brand's box and instead of a backhead when I lloked in the cab I saw, a can motor? I expected this on a smaller 0-4-0T I have but on a larger engine?. I can live with a lot, external detail can be soft or missing - scale distance reduces what you see anyway (as a military modeller you realize that aircraft panel lines aren't visible at actual viewing distances) - or I can fix what I think is missing. But no backhead, but rather the can motor in the cab. I actually had a backhead I could have copied in resin but there just isn't enough room.

Presumably newer steam engines won't have this problem, or will they? Can anyone give a general guide to this situtation. Opinions on different makers and maybe different lines in each.

I saw bacjmann had FT A/B combos and I found a really good price on them with a DCC decoder inside (not a great issue as I'm not commited to DCC, yet!, but still) and Walthers has Proto F3 a/b powerd combos for $62. Are these good units?

Is there maybe a review site where these compariosns are made for HO? I found a site with reviews of N scale engines that was pretty well done. And plastic moderls have plenty of review sites.

Anything for HO engines? And it's not like I haven't googled either, I have several times with differing keywords.

Thanks in advance

Frank

Reply to
Gray Ghost
Loading thread data ...

[...]

Ah yes, the old rating game. Upon your head be it! ;-)

On a scale of 1-10, my appraisal based on my experience and occasional discussions with other people. Rating based on scale fidelity and detail, and quality of mechanism. 5 = acceptable. 6-7 = good, 8-9 = very good, 10 = excellent. The main reason for downrating is durability of mechanism, which won't matter unless you run your locos 8 hours a day every day. NB that all the makers listed below make accurate models, but some of the roadnames offered may not be correct for some particular engine. Lately, variations of one model to match different roads have become quite common, so that prototype fidelity is better than ever before.

Kato: 10 Atlas: 8-10 (some Atlas is/was made by Kato) Athearn Genesis: 6-8 Proto (Walthers, formerly LifeLike): 7-8 Bachmann Spectrum: 6-8 Bachmann: 5-6 IHC: 5-7 Rivarossi w/ RP25 wheels (available used or old stock): 6-7

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Kato makes models of steam engines?

Reply to
Steve Caple

On 9/25/2007 9:14 AM Steve Caple spake thus:

Nope, just "diseasals", as Greg Proctor calls 'em.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

This is not a bad rating list. But it tends to ignore the most important specification of any product, the price. For a price, many things can be had, good paint, smooth quiet running, exquisite detail, prototype fidelity, your favorite road name, DCC and sound, many more, sometimes all features together, sometimes just a few. For instance the widely admired brass locomotives come with no paint and mostly run like junk despite the lofty prices. The old blue box Athearns run well, have adequate paint, adequate detail, reasonable prototype fidelity and were dirt cheap. The newer Athearn Genesis line are much nicer models, but at three times the price of the older cruder blue box locomotives. You will be happy with anything that looks right to you. It's not like buying a car where you care about resale value, prestige, gas mileage and frequency of repair records. These are models, and all they have to do is look well running on your rails. The industry has a good warrentee program which protects you from the occasional unit that dies young. In many cases the maker will replace a defective model no questions asked. So, go ye forth with a light heart to the friendly local hobby shop and buy what ever seems good to you and enjoy running it.

David Starr

Reply to
David Starr

DN:

Yes, he does, as is right and proper.

OP, don't forget to try some of the less-traveled roads. Why not pick up a Mantua engine or two (see Phil's recent "Mighty Mikado" post) to fiddle with? They're not so high on Ebay, and Model Power is reissuing some of them. One of these days I should order one, but at the moment I am saving up cigarette money for a Bowser kit (saving it up by the simple expedient of never having been a smoker :D ) while I s l o w l y manufacture a layout.

One thing to avoid, by the way, is buying too many locos. I think all of us do this, but it's not really necessary to have many. You can run a great small layout with one or two, and I would venture to guess that those with large layouts actually rely on a favored fraction of their motive power to keep up operations - the old adage that 20% of the crew does 80% of the useful work comes to mind. Locomotives take a lot of maintenance, and run best when run often, and both of these are easier to do when the roster is small.

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, a box of track and a legless table.

Reply to
pawlowsk002

Mantua locomotives had excellent smooth running drive mechanisms and solid heavy cast Zamac boilers. Mantua made a can motor conversion kit to fit most Mantua steamers. This kit will make an already smooth runner even better. The solid boiler is easily drilled to accept detail parts. As a basis for a super detailed or kitbashed project a Mantua is easier to rework than any of the newer plastic steamers. One of my favorite steamers is a Mantua Pacific I reworked into a B&M P4. Bowser kits make up into steamers as good as anything you can buy. Building the kit is fun. The job only requires ordinary hand tools. Spray cans will give a flawless paint job. Strong point of the old cast Zamac boiler models is weight, giving good traction. As a rule the modern plastic steamers aren't heavy enough to be good pullers.

David Starr

Reply to
David Starr

Yes, they do.

formatting link
They also make a number of steam lcos in N scale, including a USRA heavy

2-8-2.

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
marknewton

Yep, yes they do.

formatting link
(I have two of these now, they are far and away the best steam loco models I've ever owned.)

They also make a number of steam lcos in N scale, including a USRA heavy

2-8-2.

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
marknewton

On 9/25/2007 3:11 PM marknewton spake thus:

Hmm; I wasn't aware at all of those. Interesting.

Do you know if these are available in the US?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

  1. Is it really HO 1:87.1, or is it HOj 1:80?
  2. Whatever version of, HO it is hardly a USRA pattern.
Reply to
Steve Caple

HOj.

No, it's a JNR D51. I can tell the difference. :-)

The USRA 2-8-2 is part of their N scale range.

formatting link
Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
marknewton

Sorry David, I don't know. I imagine there must be somebody there who imports models from the Kato HO range. failing that, there are a number of Japanese suppliers who sell online, and who can respond to enquiries and orders in English.

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
marknewton

Steve Caple skriver:

Thay make some European models, which is allways real H0 We have one ETA 150, tested here bye MIBA (German mrr magazine)

formatting link
Klaus

Reply to
Klaus D. Mikkelsen

Sure, Kato makes only diesels, but so what? They still make the best. The Proto 2000 steam locomotives would rate a 10 in my book if they had Kato drive-trains.

Re: prices.

I used to buy cheap locos, but all I ended up with was two or three pieces of junk where I could have had one high quality model. It's taken me a while to realise this, but life is too short to put up with crap.

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Erm, I forgot about Kato's Japanese range. Now if they would build a USRA Pacific or Consolidation... Or a Lima Superpower 4-8-4, which could be offered with varied details to match several of the roads that bought them. Sigh....

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

All of which are already available - how about a non-Belpaire 4-4-2, or a Yellowstone, or a Wabash P-1 Hudson?

Reply to
Steve Caple

Well, duh! But which scale is it?

Reply to
Steve Caple

I also "returned" to model railroading about 8 months ago after about a 30 year break. Things have definitely changed.

I have now purchased locomotives made by Athearn (Genisis), Kato, Proto 2000, Atlas and PCM. All are lightyears more detailed and nicely built than the stuff I bought in the '70s. The thing that is going to determine what you buy is likely to be your budget more than anything else - I like the quality of all the stuff I have bought and can recommend all the manufacturers listed above. My specific comments are as follows:

Upgrading most any of these to DCC involves a learning curve. People who think DCC is easy don't remember what it was like when they first started dealing with it. Mobile decoders listed as being appropriate for a given engine may not even fit inside the available space within the shell - you get to find these things out the hard way. Me, I wouldn't buy a unit that wasn't at least "DCC ready."

Athearn Geneis uses MRC decoders which apparently many people find difficult to program. My "Challenger" won't reprogram off of its factory default settings. Another Genesis diesel unit did finally program - after repeated attempts. Other units (PCM) required that I install a resistor in the program track wiring to be able to talk to the decoders. Proto 2000 units (Walther's Life-Like) actually come with instructions on removing the shell and installing decoders. You'll get little of that info from Atlas for converting their Silver units. The level of detail on these units is just incredible.

As for the manufacturers I didn't mention, I just haven't had yet had any contact with their stuff. The IHC stuff looks nice in the catalog, but I have read negative comments (here) about their quality. I would like to get my hands on a Stewart unit eventually - just haven't done that yet.

=DC

Reply to
eüphemism

The Japanese 2-8-2 is HOj.

The USRA 2-8-2 is N.

(I did mention all this in my previous posts.)

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
marknewton

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.