Worst Model Railroad Company?

[railman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by philnrunt

I remember some really sad Tyco trash, from the 70's, but I would have to agree that Model Power puts out some horrible stuff. We used to run M P on a friends 4x8 layout(he wasnt serious about Model RRing, just liked fast trains) and he had a switch that led off the plywood to mid-air, we ran an M P Alco off at full speed onto the cement floor. The X2F broke off, but the unit ran fine. After that, the switch seemed to be set more for the Floor Division than the loop track! I think after about the 15th time the motor ripped loose and we laid it to rest.

Speaking of RR Demolition derbies, I had some old Bachmann train set units that were set up on the track (5 or 6). Just them and cabooses on notable units. My cousins and I were positioned at switches, and away we went. Full blast on the power pack. The ultimate goal was to line engines on collision courses at two diamonds I had on the set. Secondary crashes were when two met as at switch, but those weren't quite as much fun as a T-Bone. Add to this the fact that we often would turn off the lights, so whatever ones had lights we could see, but the others, well, we didn't.

[BRAKIE]

I forgot to mention the king of the scrap line..The Lindberg SW1 that had a spring drive..Not to mention this unit would slinky it way down the track for a few feet then,the spring would break.This was a horrible model..

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by philnrunt

Hey lupo and dharmon...after I thought about what I said I also realized that that is one of my best memories! So while as a scale model piece it fell flat on it's face(and flat on the floor) as a good time it ranks up there with my P2K and other engines.
Also, about Tyco, I worked at a department store during my senior year and after Christmas we had at least 8-10 Tyco RR's and 4-5 Tyco HO race sets returned. A friend and myself bought them all for 10 bucks, and built an INSANE layout in his basement. 4-4-0's and F7's trying to beat GT-40s and Jimmy Clark's little green BRM(?) to the homemade crossings! It was a figure 8 race gone mad! I remember we played with it for about a month before everything was destroyed.
Ahhh, memories! And I owe it all to the GREATEST TOY TRAIN manufacturers EVER!!!!..... Uhhh, sorry guys, got a bit carried away there.
They still get my vote, but with mitigating circumstances.

If I remember correctly, Tyco actually made a slot car/RR set complete with a section of the slot car track with a section of rail though it...I would hesitate to consider it a grade crossing.....early training for California drivers trying to beat the trains.....

[cacole]

There's a company in existence even today that makes boxcars and gondolas that sell for $2.98 each at several hobby shops out here in Arizona. I don't remember the brand name on them, but their address being in Champaign, Illinois, leads me to believe that it is a Horizon Hobbies product. Detail is horrible, the plastic is really cheap, and the wheel flanges are out of proportion. Definitely only for young children at Christmastime.

[BRAKIE]

calcole,Those cars you are seeing are more then likely the cheap Model Power cars ,IHC or Bachmanns..

[cacole]

I believe the brand name was Industrial Rail. Cheaper than even Model Power's worst. Their Web site lists around 15 HO scale models priced at $2.25 US. They also list prices in Canadian Dollars, so they may be a Canadian company. They evidentally made only O scale previously, because the majority of products listed on their site are O.

[Anonymous]

Any building kit with the word Plasticville on the box

Life like rolling stock from the 70's

Any Tyco car and most of their building kits

Old Bachman ready to run cars, especially those flatcars that came with logs or the concrete drain pipes made of plastic tube sections.

[mecovey]

Does anybody remember Cox? They had a logging set as I recall complete with an engine that either refused to move or ran at just under mach 2

[trainfan1221]

And the award goes to.....(picture drumroll,please) TYCO! I know they are collectible now, but aside from being only vague representations of the real engines, they had other fun nuances. Did any of you ever notice that most of them had no handrails? Wouldn't want to walk along that one at speed. And that "Power Torque" was a piece of power crap! At least their freight cars weren't a total loss. I have to also nominate Bachmann who I always felt could do better. I know Model Power isn't the best either, but didn't have too much of their stuff. I do have a few N signals which are all right. In the early days of nscale there was a lot of imported products which American companies just threw their names on, sort of a hard to tell the players without a scorecard kind of thing.
mecovey, oddly enough a lot of COX products were just Athearn products renamed. It is weird because their catalogs showed what were very obviously Athearn locomotives, specifically the GP35, with the COX name. There is an interesting site on tripod, can't think of the name right now, that explains all this.
Incidentally, in nscale I have to go with Bachmann as the current worst of the bunch.

[Anonymous]

I bought a brand new Bachmann BN high-nose GP-38 (or 40, or something, I can't remember for sure) in the early 1980's as a 12 year old kid and it absolutely ran like crap right out of the box. A totally useless product. Got it at Kay Bee Toy store I think. Maybe it was a black sheep, but due to that experience, I'll go with "Botchmann".

[aloco]

Model power, by far. The only 'good' stuff they ever had were locos made by Roco (E7, E9, FA-2, Sharknose). The rest was all pure junk. The stuff they make today is even worse! Have you seen their F2A? It's supposed to be an F-unit, but it has a nose like a C-Liner. It looks extremely toy-like, and every time I see one I want to stomp on it!

[Anonymous]

I would have to say tyco as well. i remember getting my first train set when i was like 4 or 5. It was the firefox. The one thing that stands out in my mind was the high starting speed, low speed of the loco. I think it started at like 50 SMPH. But on the other side, it maxed out at like 300. I still have it laying around somewhere in the box of extras. But in tyco's defense, i may have been the super generic 10 step power pack that made it start at such a high speed.

[Anonymous]

Model Power. I had two of their N-scale GP40s and one of the Alco 6-axle units they offered. Interestingly, all ran fairly well, though unfortunately they couldn't haul more than about two or three cars. Their new FP (with the metal bodyshell) isn't a bad effort, though a better motor and finer wheels would have helped. Most of their freight cars were awful too - far too underscale. A pity, as the mouldings were fairly well detailed and the cars run ok despite the plastic wheels. Their ACF Cylindrical hopper isn't too bad for the money - change the trucks and wheels, add some weathering, and from normal viewing distances they'd look ok.