Do these folks make good locomotives?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I've been away from the hobby for a couple decades, and am now looking for some HO scale Alco PA units in the D&RGW colors. It looks like Life-Like makes them in their Proto 2000 series. Are these quality locomotives?

Any other line you'd recommend?

Also, if I want to do an ABA configuration, am I best using only one powered unit and 2 dummies or can a have 2 powered units together? If you have more than one powered unit don't their motors have to be synchronized to avoid pushing/pulling on or the other locomotive?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Proto2000 locomotive (P2K) are among the best out there. Don't confuse these with Life-Life's toys of earlier years. They are nothing like those; they have extremely good prototype fidelity, accurate paint scemes, and run well.

You may run powered units together without "syncronizing" anything. It helps if they run at similar speeds, which P2K units do.

The best example I've read on how this works is:

A big man is pulling a rope in a tug-of-war. He's pretty well-matched with his opponent. Now a teenager joins him--not nearly a strong and doesn't pull as hard.

But the two of them will still win.

Same thing goes for locomotives.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips. I knew there was something back in memory about avoiding Life-Like--I think when I was a kid I picked up a box car or two at the local hobby shop and realized what a piece of junk they were. Glad to hear they've gotten their act together.

Your analogy regarding the locomotive lash-ups makes sense. Probably for what I have in mind (a Zephyr consist of maybe eight cars or so) one powered unit would be fine, but I'm tempted to get 2.

Where's a good place online to get these (there's no retailer in my town)? I tried searching the Walthers site but came up blank.

[Anonymous]

Alco PA man--

I'd try Trainworld, http://www.trainworld.com/. They had a sale on Lifelike Proto 1000 and 2000 locomotives and may have some PA units left at a very good price. I bought one, and it's a beautiful locomotive ( I bought an E8, too, --I let my wife pick them out). That said, I have no idea if they have any in D&RGW colors. Send them an E-mail--they always reply promptly to me.

Gary

[Anonymous]

I second Gary's recommendation on trainworld.

I run Lifelike P1K, F3s, A-B-B-A all powered. Generally, two identical models from the same manufacturer
produce very similar but not identical speeds. (DC)

[Hawks05]

i bought a Proto 2000 GP7 off of ebay for $50 or so. if you don't want to get all brand new try ebay. usually you can find brand new stuff but for half of what they would cost straight from a shop.

i have locomotives from Athearn, Atlas, and Proto 2000. i'm looking at buying another Athearn GP50. to me the best locomotive producers are Atlas, Proto 2000, Kato, and Athearn. thats just me though. others have different opinions.

[Anonymous]

It looks like my locomotive ranking would make a good timely appearance in this thread as well. With out further adoo, My locomotive manufacturor ranking.

Note this ranking is soley my personal opinion based on experiences with these brands though my own personal modeling, membership in three model railroad clubs, and my custom painting business.

My ranking of locomotive manufactures in according to performance and detail.

1. Proto 2000/1000. Very smooth running units. Very nice detail and lots of extra parts to configure each locomotive to match its real life counter part. DCC Ready

2. Athearn Genesis. Same as above. But come factory assembled. DCC Ready

3. Atlas. Very smooth running gear and molding. All engineering done in Austria by ROCO. Some models sub-contracted to KATO. Very nice painting and detailing. All models produced since 1994, DCC Ready. As of 2001, DCC equipped.

4. Spectrum. Very nice smooth running locomotives. Constantly upgrades line so a ready comparison is not easily given. Though consistently has smooth running and good detailing. Their steamers are the best in the Business. DCC ready

5. Kato. Best running mechanisms in the business. But I have yet to see a decent paint job come from these people. (Their SD90MAC-H being the one exception.) My ultimate locomotive would be a Kato Drive with a Proto 2000 shell DCC ready

6. Walthers Trainline. Smooth running locomotive with nice paint and detail. Ready to run. Engineered for Walthers by ROCO of Austria, and produced at Walthers plant in China under ROCO supervision. Not DCC ready but upgrading to is is easily achieved.

7. Athearn. Nice running locomotive with a rugged drive train and study instillation. My #1 recommendation for beginners. Nice detail and paint. Not DCC ready and conversion can be tricky if your not careful. Best bargain for detail, performance, and price.

I would also like to mention the offerings by Stewart and Intermountain. I hear these are also quality brands but I have no first hand experience from which I can verify these claims.

I hope you all have found this useful.
Thank you,
James R. Mitich

[Anonymous]

I'm relatively new in the hobby, but I've had good luck with the 6 or 7 Life-Like locos I've accumulated so far(N-scale).