who makes the best?

[Anonymous]

who makes the best sets? Who makes the best engines? Who makes the best rolling stock? I am talking like the Caddy of RRing...(I am talking about N scale if that changes anything).

[Anonymous]

who makes the best sets? Who makes the best engines? Who makes the best rolling stock? I am talking like the Caddy of RRing...(I am talking about N scale if that changes anything).

[n2mopac]

Scale does matter certainly. Your question is too big to answer completely, and it is hard to say that there is one "best," but there are certainly a few manufacturers whose products are superior to certain other makers. Every maker has its strengths and weaknesses. My personal opinion is as follows. Locomotives: I like Atlas and Kato best for quality and running. Life Like makes a large quantity, some run great, some don't, so you just have to be careful. Athern makes great HO locos (I used to moedl HO and still have a few of these) and is just beginning to enter the N scale market, so these are worth watching in the future. Rolling stock: many more choices. Intermountain have great details and look great, but are tough to put together for a beginner. Micro Trains make excellent ready-to-run stuff and of course have the corner on couplers. Atlas and Red Caboose also make excellent models with little or no building required. Bachman is lower quality, but they are inexpensive and are great models to experiment on (painting, decaling, weathering, detailing, etc) with not much investment. Roundhouse are good, though I don't think a good as their HO scale counterparts. There are others certainly, too nuerous to mention in one response. Of course, this is only my personal opinion and experience, and I'm sure many will disagree......so try them all and you tell us.....
Ron

[n2mopac]

Scale does matter certainly. Your question is too big to answer completely, and it is hard to say that there is one "best," but there are certainly a few manufacturers whose products are superior to certain other makers. Every maker has its strengths and weaknesses. My personal opinion is as follows. Locomotives: I like Atlas and Kato best for quality and running. Life Like makes a large quantity, some run great, some don't, so you just have to be careful. Athern makes great HO locos (I used to moedl HO and still have a few of these) and is just beginning to enter the N scale market, so these are worth watching in the future. Rolling stock: many more choices. Intermountain have great details and look great, but are tough to put together for a beginner. Micro Trains make excellent ready-to-run stuff and of course have the corner on couplers. Atlas and Red Caboose also make excellent models with little or no building required. Bachman is lower quality, but they are inexpensive and are great models to experiment on (painting, decaling, weathering, detailing, etc) with not much investment. Roundhouse are good, though I don't think a good as their HO scale counterparts. There are others certainly, too nuerous to mention in one response. Of course, this is only my personal opinion and experience, and I'm sure many will disagree......so try them all and you tell us.....
Ron

[Anonymous]

I agree with Ron concerning his choices.

Life Like in N makes great stuff, but only recently, so in Life Like engines, you'd better know what you are doing before you buy that "bargain" LL engine. Anything from their SW9/12's forward is goot stuff. I would say great stuff if they would make them dcc ready.

Athearn! Well now you' ve hit a pet "rant" of mine. Athearn has been around long enough, has enough experience in the market place to know what it is doing. The first engine out of the N scale shute was a disappointment. When Life Like can put out a quality engine at a significant price reduction to the F59PHI Athearn N engine, you know there is something wrong along the path of the yellow brick road. The Athearn engine (there is only one out right now) is a poor runner at slow speed and a rocket at high speed. Athearn knows better and obviously when they discovered they had a lemon on their hands, rather than fix the problems, they released it.

So don't buy Athearn engines in N until you have seem some positive reviews of it in forums. I find forum reviews to be a tad more accurate than magazine reviews. Because the first release by Athearn was a disappointment, the second engine out of the gate will receive a much more critical eye to it than the first. If you see the second engine receive an "A" then buy it; if not - don't buy it.

You might enjoy this link:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=27623

[Anonymous]

I agree with Ron concerning his choices.

Life Like in N makes great stuff, but only recently, so in Life Like engines, you'd better know what you are doing before you buy that "bargain" LL engine. Anything from their SW9/12's forward is goot stuff. I would say great stuff if they would make them dcc ready.

Athearn! Well now you' ve hit a pet "rant" of mine. Athearn has been around long enough, has enough experience in the market place to know what it is doing. The first engine out of the N scale shute was a disappointment. When Life Like can put out a quality engine at a significant price reduction to the F59PHI Athearn N engine, you know there is something wrong along the path of the yellow brick road. The Athearn engine (there is only one out right now) is a poor runner at slow speed and a rocket at high speed. Athearn knows better and obviously when they discovered they had a lemon on their hands, rather than fix the problems, they released it.

So don't buy Athearn engines in N until you have seem some positive reviews of it in forums. I find forum reviews to be a tad more accurate than magazine reviews. Because the first release by Athearn was a disappointment, the second engine out of the gate will receive a much more critical eye to it than the first. If you see the second engine receive an "A" then buy it; if not - don't buy it.

You might enjoy this link:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=27623

[Anonymous]

I'm HO.
Same rules apply. Post before you buy. Let this forum work for you and save yourslef some grief & money.

There are lemons out there.

[Anonymous]

I'm HO.
Same rules apply. Post before you buy. Let this forum work for you and save yourslef some grief & money.

There are lemons out there.