Which manufacturer makes or made the worst model locomotive.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: The very worst model train that I have ever owned is............

A Broadway Limited Heavy Mike. It did not run out of the box. Sparks everywhere. I went back to BLI and was returned still not working. In the end I took it apart and fixed it myself.

I know exactly what you mean. I have an Athearn Genesis 4-6-2 Light Pacific that had a bad drive gear out of the box. It has never run. I paid $149.00 for it back in February or March of this year. The LHS called Athearn to send the replacement part. So far, nothing. I'm about ready to pitch it in the trash can and say 'forget it'. What are they doing? Waiting for the warranty to run out so they can bill me for the part? Wouldn't surprise me!

This is a pic of the guilty party



Looks nice huh? Won't move at all. Wish it did. I just placed it on the track so I could take this pic of it. Expensive doesn't always mean good.

[simon1966]

1. "Worst" means so many different things to different people as can be evidenced from this thread. Since "worst" is not quantifiable, it is subjective and therfore there can never be any agreement.

2. Every manufacturer regardless of price, or standing in the market will have produced some really dreadful locomotives, either an entire model line, or perhaps just the odd bad apple or two out of an otherwise fine production run. Anyone who purchased one of these is likely to have a different opinion about that manufacturer, than someone who has never had a problem. Bachmann would seem to be the biggest culprit in that regard. Some love 'em, some plain hate 'em.

3. It is difficult to compare models that are aimed at different market segments. When you can purchase 4 or 5 of one manufacturers product for the same price as 1 of anothers, how can you really compare them. IHC steamer compared to a Proto Heritage steamer for example.

4. Almost all MRR'ers will agree that "trainset" quality locomotives, particularly from previous decades are the farthest away from the quality and standards set by scale models of today. Tyco, Bachmann, Lifelike etc. But lets face it, these were intended to be inexpensive toy trains aimed at children. They lack detail, ran poorly and perhaps did not even last very long. But a kid could handle them and I bet most of them only ran at full speed anyway, so what does it matter how they ran?

So that being said. The very worst model train that I have ever owned is............

A Broadway Limited Heavy Mike. It did not run out of the box. Sparks everywhere. I went back to BLI and was returned still not working. In the end I took it apart and fixed it myself.

The best. My other Broadway Limited Heavy Mike. It has run like a swiss watch since the day I purchased it and was my first introduction to sound locos. I love it for that and it will always have a special place on my layout.

[Anonymous]

Do you mean running quality or looks? Mantua/ Tyco will run forever if not well. Northlanz , one of the largest MRRs in the world uses mantua exclusively. Since they run well over 100 trains at one time they are looking for a reliable product. Most of the time you are far enough away from them for the lack of detail not to be a problem. I have some from the 60s that still run fine. You need to shim the motor in most cases to get it to rum smooth. I do agree that the regular Bachman & Lifelike do not run long. I also have an IHC steamer that has a decoder & it runs very well but has no pulling power. So I guess you should better define what '' WORST'' means.

[amtrakjackson]

IHC/AHM, Bachmann, Life-Like (non P1K/P2K), Pemco, Mantua, Tyco, Model Power.

Personally, I liked the Athearn rubber band drive Hustlers. In the early 80s, while working at a hobby shop, I had the "brass" one (HA) as a demo unit. That sucker would get it...like right off the end of the layout, at blinding speed. Curves be ***ed at Mach One. What a hoot...it sure sold a lot of Athearn ("blue box") and early Kato/Atlas/Roco locomotives!!

Ian

[mustanggt]

IHC hands down- My old C628 looks like a shrunken Lionel O guage loco with horn hook couplers.And then there's the IHC four wheeled center cab switcher- basically a pancake motor truck with an ugly little diesel body attached. It couldn't even pull one cheap unweighted boxcar without slipping[(-D]
Then (in following order)
Tyco
AHM (from what I've heard it's usually the same stuff as IHC)
old school bachmann/lifelike
Model Power ( nice vehicles and buildings though)
And I know this is redundent on the forums, but Bachmann spectrum always seems to be inconsistant in quality. Especially the diesels. But their Electrics and steamers are really good. Nver had a problem with my Acela Train or HHP8.....































But I can't believe it was inexpensive, poorly designed toys like these that got me started in this hobby............

[dinwitty]

The Athearn Hustler rubberband drive...Vriiing 400mph...I got the earnst regear git, real nice now.

I have the Arbour 2-6-6-6 kit and found a real old Winton 2-6-6-6, I was co-building them, photographing the progress.
http://www.qtm.net/~dinwitty/rr/rr1.html

I am watching the problems and doing whatever fixing I can, but you may as well be a master builder to put it together. The WInton kit is truly a master builder kit, but it goes together pretty good, but sometimes its tricky.

[conrail92]

The worse i ever bought was bauchman never bought them again, i buy athearn and genesis, atlas, atherean bluebox, kato

[Don Gibson]

SOMEHOW I'm getting the feeling that someone's Chevy, is running better than some else's Chevy - or is it Mecedes Benz?

BACHMANN's regular line was so cheap that engine's sent in for repair were replaced with new ones - rather than pay the hourly repair wage. It cost me $15 for a brand new 4-8-4 for my out of warrantee one.

Spectrum and current policies I don't know.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I have 3 Bachmann steamers, a british King Type prototype, a UP Greyhound and a 4-4-0 American Type from the civil war period. The last 2 don't run well and the British loco runs real good until you couple something to it. It'll just sit and spin it's wheels.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffrey-wimberly

One of the biggest problems with the Bachmann Spectrum steamers is that the drive rods tend to wear badly and bind up. This has the effect of bringing the loco to a screeching stop. Doesn't do any favors fo the rolling stock either. I know this happens, I've seen it more than once.

That's what happened to my Spectrum 2-8-0 after 1 1/2 weeks..

[Anonymous]

I'll agree with you there. My Spectrum 2-8-0 has been fixed 3 times (the final time Bachmann fixed it, the other 2 it was fixed by a local). It didn't run since it was new and it finally ran after B-man fixed it. This thing is NOISY. After a week and a half it died. It didn't last 10 hours. My IHC 4-6-2 is silent. Yes, I'll agree detail on the IHC isn't too good but I'm not a rivet counter.

QUOTE: How does your IHC look and run compared to a Spectrum

it looks good, but not as good as my Spectrum. It runs 10 times better than that POS Bachmann. Maybe someday I'll try another Spectrum but for now, I'll be buying IHC.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

One of the biggest problems with the Bachmann Spectrum steamers is that the drive rods tend to wear badly and bind up. This has the effect of bringing the loco to a screeching stop. Doesn't do any favors fo the rolling stock either. I know this happens, I've seen it more than once.

[mechanic]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Don Gibson

IHC has never made anything of ''excellent" quality - adequate maybe.

One judges quality by comparing. How does your IHC look and run compared to a Spectrum, BLI, or Heritage? ???

I'm not wishing to knock IHC , BUT ... Oh, you meant for the money -- OK, but you forgot to add the disclaimer

Good point about the disclaimer Don!
I just figured everyone would realize if you were looking at a IHC
loco, you probably can't afford a BLI.
Regarding your remark about comparing them to the other loco's-
A good friend of mine has a Spectrum 2-8-0.
Both of my IHC's run quite a bit better than his Spectrum.
In fact, his Spectrum isn't running at all at the moment.Its out for
repair work for the 3rd time.
It is alot better looking than my IHC's though.
I can't compare directly with the other 2 you mention,
no one I know wanted to afford either of those.

[wctransfer]

Mantua,Bachmann,and TYCO are THEE WORST, ever. MANTUAs alco's were, I swear, the ugliest excuse for a ALCo unit ever.

Alec

[R. T. POTEET]

N-Scale has had some real stinkers; thankfully, however, I have managed to stay away from most of them. I will underwrite jrberniers opinion that the old MRC line of steamers (and diesels too, for that matter) while great lookers, were inclined to give up the ghost in record time. I did managed to repair my Berks a couple of times with parts acquired from a company called Aksarben (try Nebraska backwards), but they soon showed up in Tennessee and the next time I needed parts they were nowhere to be found. Presently, these old MRC Berks reside in a drawer; I have hung onto them all these years because one day they will merrily rust away in a park somewhere - a fate that, tragically, befell so many of their bretheran.

Poor old Bachmann comes in for some hearty criticism and perhaps deservedly. The only Bachmann I have ever owned are Spectrums and if they are not as smooth operators as Kato or Atlas they are still pretty fair runners.

I have related a story in other postings about Bachmann's Northern - you know Bachmann's Northern, the locomotive that moves in three directions at a time (up-down-and sideways). Well, pre-September 11th there was an N-Scale club on Davis Monthan Air Force Patch at Tucson - fantastic club - which I was privileged to visit on several occasions. On one of these there were a couple of very smooth operating Santa Fe Northerns running on the layout. Honest, ***! I thought they were brass but when I inquired I was informed that they were, in reality, Bachmann units which a club member (a WAF, by the way) had heavily reworked and she had them purring like a kitten. Gone was that notorious hitch-in-the-gitalong so characteristic of Bachmann's pre-Spectrum steamers.

A few years ago Bachmann put out a release that they were going to upgrade all their N-Scale locomotives to Spectrum standards but when I inquired about this at the Bachmann booth in St Louis(?) in 2001 I got a shrug of the shoulders and an explanation that they had to keep making cheap locomotives for the toy train set..Pity; I'd love to have one - or more - of those Santa Fe Northerns but I will not buy them if they are not built to Spectrum standards.

Like Bachmann, the only Life-Likes I own are PAs and PBs and, a little noisy perhaps compared to Katos, they run just great. One day I am going to modify a couple of the A unit frames to accept B-unit shells to give myself a couple of all-units-powered A-B-A lash-ups. One of these days.......

From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet

• Reply

[Don Gibson]

IHC has never made anything of ''excellent" quality - adequate maybe.

One judges quality by comparing. How does your IHC look and run compared to a Spectrum, BLI, or Heritage? ???

I'm not wishing to knock IHC , BUT ... Oh, you meant for the money -- OK, but you forgot to add the disclaimer

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Thier steamers are great. The diesels suck!

[Anonymous]

No more Bachmann's for me, thankfully I find Lifelike, Atlas and Kato all run well on my N Scale layout., Lifelike in my opinion are the best value for money.

Dave
Downunder.

[mechanic]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dingoix

QUOTE: IHC IS THE BOTTOM LINE WORST MODEL TRAIN COMPANY IN EXISTANCE!

How can you say that? Their steamers are excellent runners. Their diesel line is questionable, but my IHC 4-6-2 runs much better than my Spectrum 2-8-0. The IHC has much better slow speed running and is dead silent. I just bought an IHC 2-6-0 and got an excellent deal, I'm sure it will run good too. IHC doesn't have the best detail, but you can always add detailing to it.

I'd say the Tyco C430 w/ powertorque drive is the worst model engine ever made. The Life-Like Standards (GP38s, F7) follow close behind but at least LL will run for a while. But they don't go slower than 50SMPH and they're extremley noisy.

I was wondering the same thing.
I have a 0-8-0 switcher & a 4-6-4 Hudson of IHC's and they are both excellent running steamers.
Later
Eric

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Noisy ain't the word for it. How about annoying!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: IHC IS THE BOTTOM LINE WORST MODEL TRAIN COMPANY IN EXISTANCE!

How can you say that? Their steamers are excellent runners. Their diesel line is questionable, but my IHC 4-6-2 runs much better than my Spectrum 2-8-0. The IHC has much better slow speed running and is dead silent. I just bought an IHC 2-6-0 and got an excellent deal, I'm sure it will run good too. IHC doesn't have the best detail, but you can always add detailing to it.

I'd say the Tyco C430 w/ powertorque drive is the worst model engine ever made. The Life-Like Standards (GP38s, F7) follow close behind but at least LL will run for a while. But they don't go slower than 50SMPH and they're extremley noisy.

[Don Gibson]

The Worst model locomotives are those made for the 'Toy Train' kiddies market:
such as Marx, Tyco, Life Like, & Bachmann. The reason is that market is unsophisticated, seasonal - or transitional -, and profitable.

TYCO has a new owner who has resurrected the MANTUA line; LIFE-LIKE has greatly expanded their lines to include $300 products; and BACHMANN has made efforts to improve their image with the modeler which disdains the older products. IHC is a Distributor / Importer that lost Rivarossi, and has sustituted products that are lower in quality - and cost - aimed for the undemanding modeler on a budget. Their MEHANO (Chech)Slovakian made engines are models that other companies (so far) do not offer.

Postings on IHC products -good or bad - seem based on meeting expectations. For some it may be on detail, others - just the ability to run.

[SOU Fan]

N scale Bachmann. I don;t know what there ho stuff is like

[Anonymous]

Tyco went out of train business in 1993 when IHC picked up some of it's line. That explains alot.

The good news is that I think most of us agree that the quality of locos today in general is far better than it was 20 years ago.

[METRO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Surfstud31

Well, it seems the majority say Tyco and Bachmann. Now that Tyco is LONG gone and Bachmann has stepped up to the plate with a far superior product to their old stuff, it seems a moot point.

The hard question is who NOW makes the worst HO loco. Any ideas? I haven't bought any, but IHC stuff seems to be cheapy to me. Is this true? Has IHC failed to improve as Bachmann and Life-Like have?

Tyco's LONG gone? alright I feel old now and I'm only in my 20s hahah. I'd have to say that the worst on the market are the basic Life Likes. A quick search on the Walthers website shows that those things are still lurking around out there.

Cheers!
~METRO

[MAbruce]

In the early N-scale days it was Lima and MRC.

These day's it a matter of who is lagging than anything else. Bachmann is usually slammed, but they have come a long way in the past couple of years. I'd rate them so-so. Con-cor and Model Power are also so-so.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

As far as I know, they haven't changed for the better.

[Anonymous]

Well, it seems the majority say Tyco and Bachmann. Now that Tyco is LONG gone and Bachmann has stepped up to the plate with a far superior product to their old stuff, it seems a moot point.

The hard question is who NOW makes the worst HO loco. Any ideas? I haven't bought any, but IHC stuff seems to be cheapy to me. Is this true? Has IHC failed to improve as Bachmann and Life-Like have?

[emdgp92]

Bachmann and Tyco made some real stinkers in the early '80s. Take the Tyco Baldwin RF16. The shell was pretty good, but the drive was crap. I somehow managed to blow up both of my RF16s in a matter of months after purchase. Bachmann's train-set drive (at that time, there was no "Spectrum" line) was pretty good. However, it too could be troublesome. With their F units, only one truck was powered, and the frame was *plastic!* The only good thing about those drives, is that they're cheap now...and will fit right into a blown-up Tyco RF16 shell :p