csxns LensCapOn: Marx 0-4-0 tank engine in HO and/or Lima GP30 in N. To be fair, most N scale of that generation were poor runners. Does anyone else remember Marx? Yes i remember Marx.
LensCapOn: Marx 0-4-0 tank engine in HO and/or Lima GP30 in N. To be fair, most N scale of that generation were poor runners. Does anyone else remember Marx?
Marx 0-4-0 tank engine in HO and/or Lima GP30 in N. To be fair, most N scale of that generation were poor runners.
Does anyone else remember Marx?
Yes i remember Marx.
Karl or Groucho? I have 40- 60 year old Marx trains that run as good as the day they were made but yeah I was never to impressed with thier HO stuff.
Have fun with your trains
Tyco GP9, circa 1972. Ran for a couple weeks then Zip. Minitrix 060 in N that was a great paperweight but a lousy lousy engine, never ran well and eventually shorted out and stopped cold completely.
In the 70's, I owned a Life-Like GP18, an AHM GP18, and the Tyco Chattanooga choo choo, which I believe was a 2-8-0. Then I bought an Athearn BB Super Geared F7. It ran like a switch watch compared to the other three, and at about age 12, I determined the other stuff was junk and never ran them or bought anything like them again.
In the modern era, I have had bad luck with some relentlessly screeching motors in P2K GP38-2's.
- Douglas
LensCapOn Marx 0-4-0 tank engine in HO and/or Lima GP30 in N. To be fair, most N scale of that generation were poor runners. Does anyone else remember Marx?
Russell
Well, mine are 50/50. One still doesn't run despite lots of modification, the other was perfect out of the box.
And the 3 different Broadway locos I had experience with all were just fine right out of the box, they just ran.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker Of the 'modern' high end stuff, the only thing I've truly had a probkem with was my AThearn RS3. Even soldering wires directly to the truck plates for power transfer did not solve the lack os power pickup, I ended up getting another one in a different road name cheap on eBay, and outof the box with absolutely no tinkering it ran great, so I swapped the shells. Someday I'll fix the other one and sell it off, I have no interest in the road name, I just got it to get a new power chassis. I won't sell it unless I know it's runnign properly, and I have enough other undecorated ones to paint that it's not worth stripping and repainting this one. --Randy
Of the 'modern' high end stuff, the only thing I've truly had a probkem with was my AThearn RS3. Even soldering wires directly to the truck plates for power transfer did not solve the lack os power pickup, I ended up getting another one in a different road name cheap on eBay, and outof the box with absolutely no tinkering it ran great, so I swapped the shells. Someday I'll fix the other one and sell it off, I have no interest in the road name, I just got it to get a new power chassis. I won't sell it unless I know it's runnign properly, and I have enough other undecorated ones to paint that it's not worth stripping and repainting this one.
And yet my Athearn RS3's run just fine? - it truely is amazing.
Sheldon
farrellaa It has to be the Tyco 2-8-0 Chattanooga with the motor and drivve wheels in the tender. I finally sold it on Ebay. I don' t know what is soooo good about these but they sell like hot cakes on Ebay. -Bob
It has to be the Tyco 2-8-0 Chattanooga with the motor and drivve wheels in the tender. I finally sold it on Ebay. I don' t know what is soooo good about these but they sell like hot cakes on Ebay.
-Bob
I'll second that. I had an Tyco 0-8-0 with the tender drive when I was a kid. Even at my young age I knew it was junk. That thing never ran worth a darn. It had a smoke unit in the boiler that had an air pump powered by a cam lobe on one of the driver axles. The drive mechanism in the tender had traction tires on the wheels that would ball up and cause problems. Between the resistance of the air pump and the balled up traction tires, it would wobble, buck and lurch down the rails. Truly a piece of engineering excellence.
Coming in second and third place, of your choice, would be anything from Life Like or Model Power from back in the 70's.
jalajoie,is 110 percent right,I have one sound MTH SD and two no sound and they are ok,Now i have four others that has bad motors and MTH last year fixed one and had it over a month and when i got it back the other one went bad so i told them to send the motor that i did not want my loco gone for that long that i will fix it myself,when that motor came in it too was bad,that is when i lost contact with MTH,The other two i got at a train show was bad also.
Worst locomotive that I ever owned was a Bachman 2-6-0. It would not run worth a hill of beans. I had some "electrical wizards" try their hand, but never got it to run reliably.
Craig North Carolina
No kidding Sheldon to be exact however I must say that 5 of these SD70 from MTH where purchased between me and a friend. One of them a SD70 M-2 is running very well. The others 4 no.
Jack W.
jalajoie My worst ones 4 MTH SD70ACe that were purchased last January. 2 Factory equiped with sound , that don't stay programmed. Sent to MTH for repairs, going on 3 months now, still waiting. 2 DCC ready that smoke decoders within minutes. Still waiting for replacement motors since last February. MTH is ignoring my emails.
My worst ones 4 MTH SD70ACe that were purchased last January.
2 Factory equiped with sound , that don't stay programmed. Sent to MTH for repairs, going on 3 months now, still waiting.
2 DCC ready that smoke decoders within minutes. Still waiting for replacement motors since last February. MTH is ignoring my emails.
Surely you are kidding right? Nothing built by MTH could ever be defective - just ask Mike Wolf.
Three come to mind as the absolute worst that have resulted in my just breaking them down for parts.
Older (80's) Bachmann 2-8-0's (blech). Older Bachmann PRR K-4's. Followed by an AHM S-2. I don't hold the older models against Bachmann though.
For worst performance in relation to cost for an out-of-the-box loco, my BLI NYC Hudson from the first run. Not so good running. Bad quartering, etc. Lot of work to get it to run smooth.
My worst? Ok.let's see then.
HO.
Hands down it was the Lindberg SW1 I bought in the early 60..This locomotive had a spring drive belt and would slink its way down the track----if the spring didn't break first.
N Scale.
Back in 82 I bought a Model Power Alco C420 that shake going down the track..I named it "old shaky" and it became a "stored" locomotive next to the engine house.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Considering price, reputation, era of construction, etc - by far my worst TWO locos were the two Broadway Limited Heavy Mikados that I had to tear completely down and rebuild as if I was bulding a kit. And I had to make parts from incorrect parts because Braodway could not supply the right parts - these locos have been made by many different vendors for Broadway, and while the basic design is the same, there are about 3-4 different "versions" with slight differences.
As a side note, it is interesting to read others experiances and compare with your own.
I bought two Genesis Mikados, neither one has ever cracked a drive gear.
I have two Mantua/Tyco Generals, both run flawlessly and pull well.
I had a Lindberg switcher, it was too fast but otherwise ran fine.
And, of course this thread started with a "bad" piece of Bachmann, I have over 40 Bachmann locos and have had only three problem ones - all made good by Bachmann - can't say that about Broadway.
A lot of locos people have mentioned are just train set junk, and that was known fact the day they were made - let alone now, 10, 20 ,30 years or more later - regardless of brand.
I don't own any Athearn SD70 whatevers because I do not model that era, or collect anything outside my modeling interest, but every piece of Athearn I have owned owned was just fine - especially considering the price and era of some of it.
On the low end, you get what you pay for. On the high end you sometimes get an unpleasant surprise.
In the middle you often get sold value, even if it requires a little modeling skill to make it "perfect".
Similar situation to David B. My Tyco UxxC from the mid 70"s. It was my first loco, never ran well and has been on the dead line for the last 20+ years. But I'll never part with it.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Hum, so may to pick from!
I am going to say it is a tie between a Athearn RTR SD 50 and a PK2000 E-6.
The E-6 will not track period even on K-10 Model Trains 32 inch turns. Have not ran it for 4 years.
SD 50 on the other hand has BBQ 4 decoders. Takes month's, but it will let the smoke out.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Probably a HO Lionel GP30... can they call it a motor?
Matt
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
Texas Zepher G Gauge - Bachmann 4-6-0 - The "frame" is made of some sort of plastic that normal glue won't stick to. As a consequence the brake shoes won't stay on. Tried super-glue, E6000, several brands of syrene cement..... The Drive wheels will not stay on. The built in sound system is pathetic at best.
G Gauge - Bachmann 4-6-0 - The "frame" is made of some sort of plastic that normal glue won't stick to. As a consequence the brake shoes won't stay on. Tried super-glue, E6000, several brands of syrene cement..... The Drive wheels will not stay on. The built in sound system is pathetic at best.
I think I can go you one better. I have the original RC version. A good looker, but no weight, and plastic drivers. Could barely pull the tender and two cars that came with it. MY little Lionel 0-6-0 ran rings around it. Today it's the only piece of G-scale I have left, as a static model that sets on top of my computer desk.
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
Hmmmm....I'm going to have to say a Broadway limited diesel dcc and sound believe it or not. Cannot get that sucker to not derail on a certain curve on my layout. The only one out of about 20 other locomotives. Sent it in for repair, got it back the same as it went in.
Jarrell
In my earlier years, with no money for brass, I lusted for a set of ATSF E units. Finally I got a pair from Model Power - I believe sometime in the late '70s. The things never, ever ran for more than a few feet. No, it wasn't due to track or wiring problems, the locos were just junk. I eventually gave them away - which in itself should tell you of their worth.
My second set of "worst" locos was the Model Power ATSF F7 units. They ran, but kept growling and losing contact from trucks to motor. I paid $5 each for them brand new - which should give you an indication as to worth.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
When I think of 'worst' locomotives I usually think of their design, not whether a loco was a defective unit off the production line. Any loco with a defective drive train can be repaired if the parts are available.
But as far as design goes, I'd say anything with a pancake motor is garbage. That includes the Bachmann train set locos, some of the old Model Power stuff, and Life-Like train set locos. I had a few pancake-motored locos when I was younger, and they eventually disappeared after I discovered flat can motors with dual flywheels.
I had said I couldn't pinpoint my best in the other thread; I can DEFINITELY pinpoint some of my worst, as follows (all HO scale)--
The Trainline GP15-1's wiring completely failed after about 1.5 years of use and would not work at all; I elected to completely gut it, give it a set of Athearn trucks, and now it's a fairly nice dummy unit on my layout (hoping the P1K model doesn't do that!!)... I'm baffled by the bad luck I've had with all of my Atlas products; it could be because all the Atlas products I own are all fairly old models (the GP38AC and GP40 both had their motors burn out, while the S2 just quit working one day, and to this day I don't know why), but regardless of their age, they've earned a spot on my worst model list! As for the Bachmann electric, simply put, I'm thinking of a four letter word; begins with "s", ends in "t", and it isn't "soot"...
And someone else may have had excellent experiences with these models; I'm basing my opinion here on the examples on my layout...
My little 4x10' HO layout may be small, and I may not have enough money to make it a masterpiece, but that doesn't make me any less of a modeler!
Worst locomotive huh? Well, a Spectrum K4 blew a decoder and never worked right even after trying to hard-wire a couple times but I still liked the loco quite a bit. One day I'll send in for a replacement.
Alvie
This.
A Lindberg switcher from the early 60s.
Tom
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
A Life-Like 'Teakettle'. Those train set quality locos from the 70's were almost universally junk.
My worst locomotive that I have ever owned is a Proto Heritage 2-8-4.
This was the first edition model and while it looked great it has no pulling power.
Two box cars on a 2 % grade was all it could handle. I remember reading a review in Model Railroader of this engine and in passing it did mention slippery drivers, however, the reviewer thought with a good run in that would solve the problem. Wrong.
It could not be upgraded with the optional traction tires that Walthers added to the later editions.
I was lucky and traded it off for a Heritage 2-10-2 that came with the optional traction tires but strangely did not need them.
My worst? Although they are gorgeous, the Genesis SD75M's. The details are flimsy, if nicely made and attached, and the trucks don't run well...they need exceptionally level rails.