British N scale

[Anonymous]

I am planning to buy my first n scale trains. Although my primary interest is in British railroads, I am unsure about the quality of British model railroad manufactures. How does a company like Graham Farish compare to companies like Fleishmann, Roco and Trix?

[nickinwestwales]

Richard,hi-Farish had a bit of a mixed rep. when they kicked off in `N`,back at the end of the 60`s,but moved up to be market leader over here in recent years. availability has been a bit patchy on this side of the pond of late ( I think the old Romany works down in Dorset has closed down and production moved out to P.R.C after a buy-out --poss. another Bachman take over) but apparently the new stuff is well up to the mark-If it runs as well as it looks,it will be well worth a punt I`m in H.O. myself so all the above is `received wisdom` as they say,but the general buzz seems to be pretty positive,hope this is of use,good luck with your new adventure,regards,nick

[Anonymous]

The new Farish (Bachmann) engines run much better than before, and all their new engines and cars have the nice RP-25 wheels. Some of the plastic shells haven't been retooled, so the detailing isn't necessarily up to current standards. But then, I'd rather have the Farish detailing than the humongous flanges the Germans all use. But on the other hand, the new German engines are coming DCC equipped and Farish is not (yet... I hope they will).

Hattons in London is a good reputable on-line retailer.
https://www.connectstores.com/hattons/

You might consider joining the N Gauge Society. They have a good on-line shop for members and a pretty large range of detail items from small manufacturers, plastic building kits from Ratio, and their own custom wagon kits.
http://ngaugesociety.com/index.htm

There is also the related, but not limited to members, discussion group on Yahoo:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ngauge/

Cheers,
Maureen

[Anonymous]

Grafar would be best avoided (unless they've improved a lot since the Bachmann takeover) - I gave up and switched to German N (Fleischmann et al) when I realised that for not much more than a poor-running, underdetailed Grafar coach I could have a Fleischmann one with better mouldings and close coupling. My main complaints about Grafar are (in no particular order):

Lack of close coupling (makes a train look like a train, rather than just a collection of stock)
The clear plastic bodyshells with liveries printed on (it just doesn't have the "solid" look of proper bodyshells and glazing, also it's usually lacking in details such as window frames)
The locos (I only had one reliable one out of around four I bought - I had two locos eat part of their gearboxes and another two burn out their motors after wearing through a bearing (when only 3 months old!))

Until they upgrade to the same quality (both in design and build) as the Fleischmann range I can't really see my spending any more money with them - the new V2 and Turbostar are a step in the right direction but they still lack close coupling (on the DMU) and the V2 looks terrible - has a huge "skirt" under the boiler hiding the motor.

There is an alternative - a company named Dapol are now in the N scale business. I have one of their first locos and three coaches (GWR 14xx, B set pair and Autocoach) which are huge improvements on anything Grafar make. They now offer a Class 73 and plan to have a GWR 45xx prairie tank available this year. Hattons (based in Liverpool, not London) have them - www.ehattons.com Hope this is of help!