N Scale Kato F's vs. Intermountain F's, What in your folks experience pulls more cars? Looking to run ABBA Lashups.
I don't have any experience about how much either one will pull. I do have a IM F7 and it weighs a good bit. So it should pull very good.
Gary
Reese
Modeling NS One Locomotive At a Time
There was a discussion of the level of detail between the IM and MTL FT's on one of th web sites a few years ago, and it was a wash as to the winner. Both had good and bad points.
I haven't run any of the Kato old style diesels except the PA/PB/PA Rio Grande set for my CZ set. I have no complaints as they have no problem doing what I bought them for.
I do enjoy my IM FT A/B/B/A sets, they are reliable and pull as good or better than any other deisel model that I have run. They are the only IM locomotives that I own, with 2 complete A/B/B/A sets.
The original drive Kato (non-DCC) is a brick, and four of them will pull out your molars. Newer Kato drives with provision for DCC are comparable to IM's, both good heavy drives, but not quite as heavy as the old school Katos.
I would go with the Intermountains. They release their model in a variety of paint schemes about every other year. Until the recent Kato release (which only included 2-3 western road names) the last time these were released was when Reagan was in the White House. They don't exactly flood the market with product.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
thanks for all the info gents, 4 sets of intermountain FTs are on their way!
The only drawback to the Intermountains is the excessive space between the engines when using the stock couplers. A lot of guys use body mount Unimates between the engines to close that up to a more scale appearance.
If you want a hauler, get a LL ABBA set of FA1's. If you want to move a house, get a ABBA set of LL FA2's. Get 'em while you can.
THe LL plastic F9's pull a ton too. Too bad they never made a FB. You could also chaeck out a pair of LL BL2's. Something to consider is having a Bachmann F9 shell over a LL GP20 mechanism.