Whats best, EP-5 or FM Trainmaster?

[Anonymous]

I am planning to purchase a new locomotive soon as I have recently upgraded my layout from O-27 to O-31 track. I am not interested in TMCC or Railsounds. Currently I am considering the following: (1) Lionel Great Northern EP-5 (18302), (2) Lionel Southern or Virginian (blue/ yellow) FM Trainmaster, (3) Williams EP-5, and (4) Williams FM Trainmaster. What experience or advice does anyone have about these engines? How does the EP-5 run with one motor? Do Williams can motors run smoother than Lionel Pullmor motors? Thanks for your help.[?]

[phillyreading]

Welcome jhkogel,
For budget reasons I love to run Williams and have no dis-appointments with any Williams product so far. I would go for the Williams EP-5, because it looks nicer than an FM Trainmaster. Williams may have the product in stock, Lionel you may have to wait for a few months.
Also I have had problems with new Lionel locomotives and do not reccomend Lionel even to an enemy!
Lee F.

[Blueberryhill RR]

I have a Williams Trainmaster Jersey Central, I must say that it is very
powerful. I prefer the Williams over Lionel. Better quality and service.
Either the EP-5 or the Trainmaster, by WILLIAMS, would be a good choice.
Chuck

[Anonymous]

get yourself a mth ep5 with proto 2. You can run it on conventional and have speed control on it. I am running my proto 2 equipment with a zw and they run great at slow speed

[jefelectric]

You will not go wrong with Williams engines. I have three and they all run great. I have converted one to TMCC and may do the others. Just got a flyer the other day and they have some on sale, although sometimes you can do better price wise from a dealer than you can buying direct.

[tschmidt]

I wouldn't buy anything but Lionel.

Tom

[Dave45681]

Bought a Williams FM pwr/dummy pair about 8 years ago (don't know if design has changed or not since then), and it pulls pretty well.

I did have a problem with a coupler on the dummy giving out when I tried to pull a mixed train of about 32 cars though(some were heavy die cast cars or operating cars with some weight to them). I suspect that was an isolated incident, most probably have couplers that are fine.

One other thing, but I suspect I was just unlucky. The first one I bought decided to smoke. Probably had a short on a regulator board or something. This of course can happen with any company out there.

For the money, can't probably beat it if you are into conventional and/or the toy train look and are not looking for the latest Whiz bang electronic features or super detailing.

I have not bought Williams since, but not due to the above, just because I became mostly interested in command control, and once you add TMCC to a Williams, the price benefit starts to disappear.

-Dave