OLD SCHOOL: Delton's or Kalamazoo's, Vote for one..................

[LGBtrains1963]

What engine from the 80's did you own or what brand did you like best, Delton Locomotive Works or Kalamazoo ? I would have to say my favorite was the Kalamazoo, The delton's looked better but had to many problems with gears... So tell me your favorite and the reason why... 

[GearDrivenSteam]

Delton. Primarily because I still have a Delton Doozie railbus ,in excellent condition in the original box. No, you can't have it.

[vsmith]

Well this is kind of like the Miller Lite joke right? taste great - less filling?

Each had its own strenths and weaknesses, I can only base my opinion os the stuff I have collected to date, as I wasnt involved in the hobby back when Delton was still around.

Delton, had better detail but as pointed out mechanically were weak.

Kalamazoo stuff still runs great today but had detail at the low level of a cheap Scientific christmas tree train set.

However both are still alive and with us today, Deltons C16 was resurected as Aristos C16, Klalmazoo's 440 became HLWs 440, both companies freight cars, passenger cars, are still being produced today by Aristo and HLW. So which was better? Depends on you criteria, for reliablilty, Kalamazoo was better, for detail and believability, Delton won hands down.

I will say I highly covet Delton's brass models, so on desirabilty criteria, Delton.

[GearDrivenSteam]

"scientific Christmas"    Hay Vic, how bout splainin THAT? LMAO

[vsmith]

"scientific Christmas"    Hay Vic, how bout splainin THAT? LMAO

Sorry guess I didnt realize everyone would get the reference...No, by "Scientific Christmas" I didnt mean that the baby Jesus in the manger is a test tube with boiling chemicals in it, although an all test tube manger setup would be interesting!

Scientific Toy trains...cheap MIC battery sets that always turn up around Christmas time at the local KB Toys, Heck even the CVS stores had them last year. They always dissappear right after new years.

http://www.kbtoys.com/genProduct.html/PID/2718719/ctid/17/INstock/Y/D/

 

[GearDrivenSteam]

Oh, I got the reference, I was just makin fun of how you said it. LOL

[kstrong]

Each had their various strengths. Early on, we never owned either company's locomotives. The Kalamazoos just looked too toy-like (and the front pilot had "issues") and for whatever reason, we just never bought the C-16. I always liked the looks of it, we just never bought one. Dad's now got three on his roster--one Delton, one from Caledonia (who originally bought Delton) and one from Aristo. The Aristo one is the only one still running. The other two are awaiting the release of Aristo's new C-16 drivetrain, having suffered mechanical failures.

The rolling stock was a different story. The Kalamazoo stuff was pretty basic, but cleaned up nicely with a coat of paint and some additional detailing. Their stuff was much like Bachmann's 1:22 stuff is today--a great, cheap starting point for any number of projects. Dad's still got two of their tank cars on his roster, though I believe the gons and flats have been replaced.

Delton pretty much replaced LGB as our rolling stock supplier once they came on the market. Their stuff just looked much more like a scale model than LGBs (and far more than Kalamazoo).

From that perspective, I think it'd be easy to say that Delton was the hands-down winner. However, as I look back from a kitbasher/scratchbuilder's perspective, I'd give Kalamazoo (now Hartland) a bit stronger position. I think their stuff is great for building.

Later,

K

[dwbeckett]

Delton. Primarily because I still have a Delton Doozie railbus ,in excellent condition in the original box. No, you can't have it.

Same for me I run mine with a trailer just for grin's.

[Dennis Paulson]

I vote for Kalamazoo .

 

Because it was my first Largescale/G size train , and it was a  4-4-0 locomotive .