Sagami motors have not been made since the Kobe Earthquake - now many years ago. NWSL found another source in a few months, that most consider just as good.
Other brnads have been noted.
The Mabuchi motors are usually 3 slot skew wound armatures, which run very smoothly.
As noted, Bowser's motor is now skew wound, and has NdFeB magnets too.
Technically, all of the DC motors HO trains are 2 pole, the correct terminology for most of the motors is 2 pole, 5 slot.
NWSL/Sagami motors do have 5-pole skewed armatures. My Tiger Valley RSD-12 diesel came with one, and the skewed armature is what I found when I opened up the motor for no reason. Most of today's motors, skewed or not, 5-pole or 3-pole, run as well or near as well as the NWSL motors.
Skewing of the armature is actually a very old trick for better low speed control. One example is the Lindsay 7-pole motors from the 40s and 50s (how many of you remember those?). Their skewed armatures gave them better low speed control than most anything else around at the time, and their self-contained power trucks had some good features that you never find in anything anymore.
modelmaker51, Kato's motors are actually not skewed, believe it or not (I opened one). The newer Bowser motors do have skewed armatures now, and they run like a good can motor.
_________________________________________________________________
I have a few old steam loco's that had 3 pole and 5 pole motors in them, the Sagami made a world of difference on running. The slow speed I was looking for was there then, and the new motor made the difference.
I have on older PFM Shay that I repowered with a Sagami motor, I did some rework on the gears also. The loco use to sound like a blender running before, but now runns smooth and quiet. This was expensive, but made a good upgrade to the loco.
Pretty much all the motors all the motors used in MRing are skew wound, even the Athearn open frame motors. The only exception, I believe are the Pitman motors that Bowser uses in their steamers. Kato motors can be bought separately from Kato (with or without flywheels). The skewing of the armature helps to overcome the cogging of the older straight armatures and therefore provides for smoother low speed and starts. Other good motors: Cannon, Buehler(Athearn Genesis, Stewart C-628/630, Overland), Atlas(Chinese-Kato clone) and Micromark(Mashima clone). Mabuchi's are also good but most are designed for slot & RC cars. For drop-in replacements look for motors with about 10-12000 rpm for diesels(12 or 14:1 gear ratios), for steamers, if you have a race horse, try something in the 6000 to 8000 rpm range.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
You dont name the company of the locomotive your looking at or how old it is, because it makes a difference. Most of the manufacturers use 5 pole skewed armature motors including some of the lower quality ones. Also there are also different versions of stuff with different motors or the motor may be the same but the drivetrain has been changed etc.
Sagami and mashima are generally considered the top motors. I dont thing any manufacturer currently uses them, although I sure someone will come up with a example.
I think that Sagami motors are skew wound, so what you're looking at is most likely just a difference in manufacturer.
Skew wound motors are made in such a way that the windings on the individual armature poles are at an angle compared to the motor shaft. This helps the motor to start from a dead stop (and there are likely other benefits, too). A lot of manufacturers make skew wound motors. Because Sagami motors perform so well I assume that they are skew wound, although I've never had one apart to see, and I can't find any deffinitive information in a casual search.
For what it's worth, skew wound motors can be of either open frame or "can" design. The term skew wound only refers to the design of the armature.
In my opinion, Sagami motors are very good, but modelers who wish to upgrade their locomotives should also consider coreless motors. These have windings like other motors, but they are wound without the iron framework in the middle of the armature. This allows the motor to have its own flywheel action. I use coreless motors and love them, although I have read comments that coreless motors tend to overheat in model railroad applications - all I can say is that I have not experienced this, but my locos never run for more than 5 minutes without stopping (I have a point to point layout, and even at shay speeds they run out of track within 5 minutes).
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Does anyone know the difference between the two motors? I have installed NWSL can motors, but I am looking into purchasing a loco with the 5 pole skewed motor. Thnks