Best Brands for HO?

[schom]

I am getting back into model Railroading and am wondering what the best brands to use are? I am building and HO scale layout and am looking for opinions on what to use for my new layout. Engines, cars, track, power supply, etc. Any help is welcome.

[Don Gibson]

BEST brand's - or most popular?

Depend's on your pocketbotbook or depth of interest.

Superior
Stewart
Intermountain
Kato
Atlas
MRC

TODAY'S rail
code 83

[nfmisso]

Switches: Peco; most reliable, okay price.
Flex track: Atlas
Steam locomotives: Bachmann Spectrum, LL P2K, BLI
Frieght cars: Branchline, Red Caboose, Intermountain, Kadee, Atlas, Bowser/Stewart, Tichy, Westerfield, Sunshine, Funaro,
DC power: MRC
DCC: Digitrax, NCE, Lenz are the big boys, Lenz invented DCC.

[UP Deano]

if your going with diesel engines, Atlas and Kato. I have NEVER had ANY problems with my Katos or atlas engines.(in HO or N)

[Anonymous]

I'm still learning but WELCOME!
Sounds like sound advise, not a lemon in them and there are lemons out there.

[Virginian]

I can only address steam and a very few diesels.
P2K - any Heritage steamer, particularly the 2-8-8-2, 2-8-4, and 0-8-0 are great. The E-8 diesels look and run fine too.
BLI- the 2-6-6-4, 2-8-2, and N&W 4-8-4 look, run, and sound great.
Bachmann Spectrum N&W J and 4-8-2 heavy are excellent.
The Athearn Genesis 2-8-2 and 4-6-2 locos run well (a few did have axle gear problems) and look good doing it. They can use extra weighting.
The Atlas trainmasters are excellent.

[orsonroy]

Engines, Diesel: Atlas & Kato.

Engines, Steam: Bachmann Spectrum, BLI, P2K.

Cars, Freight: Red Caboose, Intermountain, Branchline, Atlas, P2K, Tichy, Westerfield, Sunshine, Funaro & Carmelengo.

Cars, Passenger: Walthers, Branchline.

Track: Peco (codes 75, 83 & 100), Atlas code 83, Micro Engineering (codes 55, 70, 83)

Power supply: DC; MRC. DCC; Digitrax.

Etc: Scenic Express for scenic materials, Woodland Scenics for scenery details, DPM, Branchline, Atlas, Walthers & Grandt Line for structures.

[BRAKIE]

The best of the best..Atlas and Athearn..
Track,Atlas code 83.
Power pack MRC
DCC..Digitrax and Lentz seems to be the most popular.
Freight and passenger cars will depend on your modeling standards and budget.
Do recall you don't need high dollar engines and cars to enjoy the hobby nor does one nedd DCC.[:D]

[rockisland4309]

Engines: Atlas and Kato
Freight cars: Intermountain, Genesis, Red Caboose, Atlas and P2K.
Power Pack: MRC

[WickhamMan]

I also recently (a year ago) got back into model railroading. I think the recommendations here are probably very good ones. I personally bought Atlas and BLI engines for my layout. My rolling stock is a variety of brands (who's isn't?).

One thing to definitely consider is what era and roadnames you want to model before you go off and buy a bunch of stuff. I personally neglected that aspect and chose on manufacturer and what I thought looked good. Later, when I decided to model a specific road and era I realized some of my purchases were less than stellar, regardless of the price.

If you care (or think you will later), pick a set of roadnames and an era before you drop a wad of cash on engines and rolling stock. Often, that decision may dictate which brand you go with because they generally don't carry a huge variety and there is not a lot of overlap between brands.

Good luck,

EdW

[Anonymous]

[2c]
Atlas Silver & gold series EXCELLENT!!!
All the Atlas engines that I have in n scale are great (look and performance), not to mention the newer ones, they have more fine details (grab irons, visors) than Kato.

Kato, in both HO and N scale has excellent drive systems, they're quiet and at lower speeds they're almost silent.

Bachmann Spectrum steam engines are also impressive.

If you're crazy like me [swg] and don't mind paying the extra $$ try OMI locos [tup][tup][yeah] , Akane or even Hallmark. I get those off ebay, most aren't available in stores.

[Anonymous]

I think it has been well stated already, a lot will depend on your own skills as well, lots of stuff comes ready to run, but some are kits and some of them are harder than others. also diffently think about the era and road(s) you want to model and then you can purchase for them. You won't see sd70mac's on a 1959 Santa Fe and you don't see 40' boxcars on a present railroad, etc

[emdgp92]

Like the others have said, you don't need expensive locomotives to enjoy the hobby. My Athearn blue-box engines run just fine :)

[Anonymous]

THere was a thread regarding the Athearn locomotives, I forgot the name of the thread. It was pretty much a landslide that the old Athearn blue box locomotives were hands down the best bang for the buck. As I said in that thread, I have two I KNOW are over twenty years old. Both are somewhat loud by today's standards, but both run very well still even today. Now, as for up to date stuff, I agree with everyone else. I have a Bachmann Spectrum Shay locomotive, and I must say it has made me VERY biased. It is totally awesome. Proto 2000 is also another good affordable locomotive that runs very well. It all boils down to an old saying we use to use in the drag racing circle: Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go? Same could be said here.

[Anonymous]

emdggp92: I'm in the same boat. I run for deisels Athearn Blues.
For good for the money engines....
Steam: IHC premier series, Rivarossi, P2K
Deisel: Athearn,P2K,

[wctransfer]

Kato for engines
Atlas for track(and whats so bad about code 100 guys?)

Alec

[Anonymous]

I really like the German models in steam like Roco. For rolling stock, I think Walthers is as good as any. I do not run diesels so no opinion there.

[Anonymous]

I have an Athearn blue box bought in 1988. I have converted it to DCC and it's still hauling tonage on my layout. For a more state of the art diesel locomotive I would recommend Life Like's P2K line and Atlas. Great running stuff! For freight cars it's all over the board depending on era, style, etc. For power I second the oft repeated MRC for DC power. For DCC, get with other modelers in your area and see what they are using. If there is a lot of local support for a certain brand that might be a good thing to know. I have CVP's easy DCC (since 1998) and I am very pleased. There is a gentleman on these forums who has some "how to" videos out. His layout is incredible and his name is Joe Fugate. He uses EasyDCC. That's not a put down of Lenz, NCE, Digitrax, or anyone else. I thought the early Digitrax stuff was awful. Not product quality, but goofy thinking in the design. They have improved 1000% since those days. By all means, find out what is popular in your area. When those quirky bugs show up, and they will, you'll have local people to help you over the hump.

Cheers

[mcouvillion]

schom,

Now, take the manufacturers listed in all the above (and following) opinions, total them up, and you'll have a good idea of what the "experts" think is the best available stuff. Can you afford it? That remains to be seen. But, at least you'll know what the guys who (supposedly) run every day prefer.

I've got my opinions, and for the most part they match many of the above suggestions. Good luck in your search.

Mark C.

[Anonymous]

you can get ten athern blue box engines for the price of one atlas engine...
but you'll be glad you bought the atlas

[Anonymous]

I've gotten to play with a lot of engines, I almost exclusively buy Katos now, I enjoy doing detail work myself, installing a DCC decoder is pretty much a thirty second job, they run smooth and quiet and just don't quit. Atlas engines run a lot like Katos but usually come RTR, the selling point for my Katos are the weight and the fact that I like to put on all the little bits myself. If you'd rather have it detailed right out of the box, I'd recommend an Atlas...but for my money, Katos are the best value for quality.

[CP5415]

Schom, welcome to the forums!!!!!

Lets see, the best brands are the ones that work best for yourself!!!!

For me, I went with inexpensive to get myself back into the hobby.
That means I have a lot of Athearn "BlueBox" stuff. Locomotives as well as Passenger & freight cars. You will not beat Athearn for durability especially for the price. I got several suggestions from people & went with my decision.

I have slowly started purchasing Proto & Walthers products as well.

For power packs, I have an MRC one that's been in the family since the early 60's & it works. I do have 2 newer ones that I use though.

Track, Atlas flex track & Peco switches here. Again, I went with a few suggestions from people & went with my decision.

I hope this helps.

Gordon

[simon1966]

Here is what I have purchased and I have no complaints

Track: Peco turnouts and Atlas Flextrack

Locos: Atlas (V. Good), Stewart (Smoothest runners I have), Broadway Limited (The sound is great), Athearn Blue Box ( A bit clunky and not as detailed, but great value), Proto 2K (excellent detail and running and V good prices on e-Bay), P1K (less detail than P2K=less fragile, similar drive and good value)

Rolling stock Kits: Athearn BB (Great value rugged back bone of the fleet, the kids love to make these), Accurail (better detail, excellent product), Branchline (my favorite kits), P2K (look for bargains on e-bay in the kits).

DCC: Digitrax Zephyr (Great starter) TCS Decoders (best value for money IMO, v.small and well made)

Structure Kits: i love to make laser kits and highly reccomend the kits by JL Innovative Supply and AMB

Hope it helps

[tsasala]

I have Atlas and P2K - the Altas is much smoother at low speeds than the P2K. However, I have not tuned the decoder, so perhaps that will make a difference. Also, the Altas headlight does not flood the cabin like the P2K (LED verses incandescent).

-T