Who makes domestic locos ...and are they any good?

[rrinker]

 Don't think ANY are made in the US any more. 

You've even missed some that have come and gone - Life Like made very good locos (not at ALL like their train set junk) and called them Proto 2000. Walthers owns them now, still sells some of the locos. Stewart was bought by Bowser, they offer some very nice models, some of them still the same Stewart models but now fully dressed with all the grads, lift rings, etc. 

Newcomers with top quality include Rapido Trains and Scaletrains. Scaletrains has two line, Operator and Rivet COunter. Biggest difference is level of detail, Operator models are less detailed but stand up better to handling. Rivet Counter models are insane - MAYBE the very latest brass can do better, but it would be a close race. These are amazing models. And they seem to run very well. Rapido is up there with the details, too. 

 Athearn Blue Box is gone, repalced by their Ready to Roll line, which have upgraded drives and depending ont he model, much better shells. Then they have their Genesis line, which are the super detailed models, with the upgraded drive AND upgraded motors. 

Pretty much all of this is made in China. Apart from Stewart, now Bowser, and Athearn, most of it always was. 

 Bachmann is still around. Their Spectrum stuff is decent, they still also make the low end stuff too.

                              --Randy

 

[The Milwaukee Road Warrior]

From what I've gathered after returning to the hobby after 25+ years away, hardly anything for motive power is made in the US anymore.  I hear a lot about locos being made in China, and the opinions I've heard about their quality is split about 50/50. 

Back when I first got into the hobby as a young kid, there was Bachmann and Athern.  My very first HO loco was a Bachmann and I wasn't real happy with it.  I graduated to Athern for everything after that.  No idea if Athern is still domestic.    

Seems like there are MANY more producers now.  But I'm not familiar with where they are made or what kind of quality I should expect.  I've kept an eye on various threads about locos over the months since I joined the forum, just trying to guess what brands are the most reliable.  So I figured I would just ask.  I haven't bought a new loco since about 1988.

I prefer to "buy local" (US) if possible.  But perhaps the domestic stuff isn't very good? 

Question 1: does anyone still make locos domestically?

Question 2: if so, are they any good?

Question 3: if they aren't any good, then who/what is?

I have limited funds with which to buy motive power and I know steam is very expensive.  I know that BLI makes more than one Milwaukee Road steam loco but I don't know enough about them (or Kato) to make any kind of decision.  I've heard all of the Walthers locos are Chinese...

I model HO, and I have no interest in buying brass.  I'm looking for ready-to-run.

Thoughts/advice appreciated!