Although i have been into trains for a long time and have dabbled in ho but now there seems to be so many great manufacters like Atlas, BLi, Mth, Scale trains , etc. is one better than the other. Who has the best sound, detail, quality, etc.
Dave
Dave,
Every manufacturer has their studs and their duds. You have to look at brands on a locomotive-by-locomotive basis. Is there any particular era or railroad(s) you are interested in? That's probably the best place to start when talking about brands...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Hi Dave,
I think you are asking a very complex question. I don't think that the answer is the same for everyone. For example, some people might say that Rapido is the best, but after the problems that some people have experienced with Rapido's Royal Hudsons and its original Turbo Train, Rapido could find itself in some peoples' bad books too.
Almost every manufacturer has had some great offerings as well as some duds. I believe you would be better off to ask the question based on specific locomotive or rolling stock types.
There is one area where I would suggest choosing and sticking with a single manufacturer, and that is decoders. My choice has nothing to do with who might be the best. I get the impression that there aren't many bad decoders being made anymore. It simply boils down to having all of your rolling stock operate the same way. I have a bunch of different decoders by different manufacturers and it is a pain to try to remember the differences between how each of them operates. Mind you, I'm all thumbs when it comes to this stuff so I like to keep things as simple as possible. YMMV.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Further to what Ja Bear commented, pick some manufacturers that have a price point, level of detail, and history of reliability that you can live with and go with that. While it would be nice to buy everything from the top of the line, folks do not often have the cash on hand to do this. Stay away form the bottom end - train set quality and similar. I try to stay with the middle of the road as far as price and detail. That works for me.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
The great thing about the standards the NMRA developed and maintain is that everyone follows the standards (except for Marklin) so they all work together.
So pick and choose what you want. Places like this forum can help you identify the good, the bad, and the ugly. You can learn from others experiences and share your own.
Paul
You are thinking American Flyer vs Lionel.
It does not worl that way in HO. Everything is interoperable.
Pick on price, quaslity, availability.
Undoubtedly the MTH subway carse are of better qualirty than LifeLike, but when I started buying subway cars LifeLike was the only game in town, unless you wanted to go for brass at $400/car.
LION must alter and rebuild the cars to the specifications of the LION. This is more easily done with the LifeLike than with the MTH, which are much more higly strung. There is not the space in the car for the LION's modifications.
sew ewe sea... you go with the best quality that you can afford.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
G Paine I try to stay with the middle of the road
Eh? Road kill.
Thanks to the work of the NMRA product from all manufacturers will interoperate with no trouble. Track gauge, coupler height, wheel profile, sharpest curve, voltage, all these and more are standardized among manufacturers, you can be assured that track and rolling stock from various makers will all work together, trains will stay on the track. All the makers big enough to run ads in the model railroad press make fine product. Some makers offer higher levels of detail and charge higher prices. Others offer a modest level of detail and more modest prices. Take your pick. Quality in model train stuff is hard to pin down. All of it will run a long time and stay on the track. Viewed from layout distances, a couple of feet, the modest detail models look as good as their more highly detailed competitors. I look for stuff that fits my railroad, my era, roadname, type, and looks right to my eye.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
If you stick with one brand you will be missing out on some potentially important engines, especially if you model a certain RR.
Top brands for diesels IMO are:
Athearn/Genesis
Atlas
ScaleTrains
Rapido
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Good advice from everyone. Bad jokes from Lion!
hon30critterThere is one area where I would suggest choosing and sticking with a single manufacturer, and that is decoders.
This is one that is important to me. I agree. I'm sure people with more electronic skill than me don't have issues, but for me personally, it is difficult to keep track of which decoders do which things.
Kato is the N Scale I like the most, but it is also a little higher priced.
York1 John
Stick with 1 brand of decoders, 1 brand for DCC controllers. (These two do not have to match each other though.)
Everything else is easily mixed based on best available model. (Note: Sometimes my best might be different from your best. My best of one model maybe a Athearn, while your best of the same might be BLI. Either one of us might have found a good deal on ours, making it a better fit.)
For locomotives, I have a mix from Bowser, Bachmann, Athearn Genesis, Athearn Blue-Box, Athearn RTR, BLI, Intermountain, Proto, and Atlas. All work well with a even more mixed bag of rolling stock.
Track is mix of MicroEngineering, Atlas, Walthers and Shinohara. (Even some handlaid mixed in for good measure!)
Zero issues with mixing all of these.
Find the ones you like, and get the best of that model that you can afford.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I stick to one brand on:
.
1) Turnouts, Shinohara
2) Power Packs, Troller
3) Trucks and Wheels, Kadee
4) Couplers, Kadee
5) Turnout Motors, Circuitron
I have preferred brands for:
1) Paint, Scalecoat
2) Track, Altas
Everything else is a free-for-all, and it all works well together.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I have a rule of thumb that I live by when buying locomotives.
~ BLI for steam
~ Atlas for diesels
~ Intermountain for hard to find diesel roadnames
~ Athearn when all else fails
~ Bachmann when truly desperate
~ MTH, avoid at all costs
~ Proto 2000, mourn their loss
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain I have a rule of thumb that I live by when buying locomotives. ~ BLI for steam ~ Atlas for diesels ~ Intermountain for hard to find diesel roadnames ~ Athearn when all else fails ~ Bachmann when truly desperate ~ MTH, avoid at all costs ~ Proto 2000, mourn their loss Rich
So it is interesting how era and prototype effect these choices.
Given their selection, I would only have about 6 steam locos rather than 60 if I stayed with BLI and excluded Bachmann. And the track record for problems has shown BLI to not be superior.
Atlas makes great locos, but not nearly enough in my era, 1954, in which Proto2000 (pre Wathers) wins hands down. Atlas has also been more expensive and harder to find.
Intermountain and Athearn Genesis are my first choice for EMD F units. Other Athearn, pretty limited.
No Bachmann diesels except the switchers/specials, 44 tonner, 70 tonner, doodlebugs.
MTH, never in any life time.
Sheldon
Thanks guys for all you advice and tips. Although i live on the east coast i really like west coast railroading especially the Union Pacific, southern pacific and westeren pacific. I also like the more modern era of railroding like the Sd70aces, ES44s and the like. is BLI that good for steam? I know Atlas is pretty good for the earlier era of diesels but how about the more modern era?
DCC and sound is a must for me so who has the best sound installed or what decoder has the best sound?
Or should i just stick to dc and use one those boxes to operate the sound?
sorry guys for all the questions but i need to know what to buy and the good and bad of what manufactures are doing.
Despite having some experiance with DCC, I am not a DCC sound user on my home layout, and nothing on my layout is a model of anything built after 1954. So I will only address your question about steam.
BLI is as good anyone regarding steam, are they better?, best? That depends on your views. Personally. I have had great success with older Bachmann Spectrum, but again, I don't run DCC or sound.
For me, BLI is too focused on big, rare, famous steam, not on "work a day", medium sized, ordinary steam to make a layout look realistic, your mileage may vary.
I have 7 BLI steamers, only four different loco types, I have 34 Bachmann steamers, covering nine different loco types. Overall, way fewer problems with Bachmann than with BLI.
But as many have said early in this thread, every company has winners and losers.
I do feel BLI is light on fine detail when compared to older Bachmann Spectrum or Proto steam.
Again you mileage may vary,
When it comes to sound, everyone has their preferences and why. And some don't care for sound at all...and that's fine.
I enjoy sound but it's not a "must" for me. I'm more interested in motor-control. Sound I can always turn off if I choose and still enjoy operating my locomotives. A locomotive, however, that starts off at 5 sMPH on speed step 001 - especially switching - ruins the operating experience for me. Yes, really. I want my steamers or early diesels to crawl at 1 sMPH or less.
With that said, here are my choices (preferences) for sound decoders with additional comments (whys):
I love Loksound decoders. However, their American steam files are still pretty limited so I can't recommend them for that. I'm hoping with the release of the new Loksound 5 decoders that that will change.
Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders sound great but I prefer the motor-control of the Loksound and TCS decoders. (TCS is my go-to for motor-only decoders.) I've heard the Tsunami2 decoders have better motor-control than the original Tsunamis but I don't have personal experience with the newer ones.
Loksound and TCS have great motor-control right out of the box. Tsunamis generally need to be tweaked to get anything comparable.
Of course the thing with decoders and sound is that when factory equipped you get whatever the manufacturer chose to include. You can of course change these if you want (or buy DC and add them), but it's an expense and a hassle.
I am apparently very undemanding in this department because I find they all work well for me.
I say pick and choose.
Disclaimer: I know very little about DCC. Most of the time I'm running engines in plain DC mode.
The different manufacturers will surprise you. I like trying something from everybody. I have been pleasantly surprised by everybody, on one item or another.
You can solicit results, but even the folks on here do not agree with each other. That's life.
Some here hate MTH with a real passion, yet their engines do what they say they will do, run and light (and even smoke) very well. My best pulling engine, bar none, in service here happens to currently be the MTH SD70ACe. The only engine that can match or beat it in pulling power is the Proto 2000 SD70MAC, because it has lots of factory weight in it.
When I needed MTH warranty service, for me they were fantastic and very timely.
Athearn is also very good about sending parts if you need them, free of charge (often) if you explain it is an actual factory defect. They are fantastic about standing behind their product. Some others also are, but only a few are not (including unfortunately Walthers who no longer stocks parts).
I also have Overland brass diesels that will pull well, but because some of them might have issues with driveshaft ends coming loose, I don't overload mine with ridiculously heavy trains (like I might do with the less expensive plastic).
I have a curious kitty that bumps into trains--they need to be able to take a few light bumps from the kitty. That means I prefer metal handrails or Kato handrails. Others will have different success criteria than me.
John
I would advise to do your research before you buy. I have about 35 locos, all of which have DCC. Some have sound and some not. One of my engines, an H15-44 has very unique indicator lights additional to the main headlamp. When I initially converted this engine to DCC, the digitrax decoder I purchased did everything it should, but did not provide CV programming for prototypical operation of these indicator lights. After doing some homework (which I should have done first) I found a TCS decoder that does everything the digitrax decoder did AND provide proper operational lighting... for less the cost of the digitrax. I was able to return the digitrax decoder to my hobby shop with no hassle, but it was extra time, frustration and effort on my part that could have been avoided. It's just like the old saying... "measure twice and cut once". Same idea, different application.
Other have given alot of great response, here's what I would recomend.
Having a standard for somethings (i.e couplers) is very important to insure your layout runs smoothly. Other things you could standardize, but you don't need to, for example decoder brand or turnout and track. Other things standardizing would seriously limit what you can do with your layout, say using only one brand of rolling stock. I'd say it's helpful to look at what other use and what you find to be the best before picking one brand for things like decoders or track.
Some brands are simply better than others, I think few people will dispute that a Rapido locomotive is better than a Bachmann, but it's really best to approach it peice by peice, every manufacture has had bad and good products. Also bad to one person is okay to another.
In conclusion you need to decide for yourself what is better, but keeping to one brand for rolling stock/locomotives is very limiting.
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
SPSOT fan Other have given alot of great response, here's what I would recomend. Having a standard for somethings (i.e couplers) is very important to insure your layout runs smoothly. Other things you could standardize, but you don't need to, for example decoder brand or turnout and track. Other things standardizing would seriously limit what you can do with your layout, say using only one brand of rolling stock. I'd say it's helpful to look at what other use and what you find to be the best before picking one brand for things like decoders or track. Some brands are simply better than others, I think few people will dispute that a Rapido locomotive is better than a Bachmann, but it's really best to approach it peice by peice, every manufacture has had bad and good products. Also bad to one person is okay to another. In conclusion you need to decide for yourself what is better, but keeping to one brand for rolling stock/locomotives is very limiting.
Isaac,
You are correct that each piece should be evaluated separately. The problem with saying that Rapido is "better" than Bachmann is that "better" is subjective.
Better in what way? Better sound? Better detail? Better running? Better price/value? Better balance of all factors?
And it does not matter how much "better" a brand is if they don't make what you want.......
I for one am not deciding what to have on my layout solely based on who makes it.........
I have seen Rapido stuff, it is very nice, shame they have yet to make ANYTHING on my want list.
But Bachmann has made a ton of stuff on my want list, and I have found it to mostly be of VERY suitable quality. I have a bunch of Bachmann. But then again I model 1954, the OP is interested in modern stuff mostly, so he might not find Bachmann (current or older Spectrum) or Rapido to have much he wants.
Remember, at least until a few years ago, a "Bachmann" (Kader) factory made Atlas.....all those same people who would agree with you that Rapido is better than Bachmann would say that Atlas is also better than Bachmann.
And the GRAVELY/ARIENS lawn mower factory makes the snow blowers for those supposedly "better" John Deere tractors.........
Sometimes "better" is only defined my more features and a high price, not actual higher quality of design or materials.
If you perform any type of work on the loco, sticking with one brand provides a familiarty that can be useful.
I run only diesels, and the vast majority of them are Atlas, with many having QSI sound. Its nice to be able to have a set of CV settings that apply to all locomotives.
I freelance. I don't have to search for models of specific locos with specific roadname details, so favoring one brand does provide a level of familiarity and simplicity to the fleet.
- Douglas
SPSOT fanSome brands are simply better than others, I think few people will dispute that a Rapido locomotive is better than a Bachmann, but it's really best to approach it peice by peice, every manufacture has had bad and good products. Also bad to one person is okay to another.
The other thing to keep in mind re people's opinions is that some products have been around a long time. A Bachmann GP-30 from 30 years ago that someone disliked may not have been anywhere near as good an engine as one from the most recent production run of them.
I suppose a cynic might point out pretty much everything is made in China anyway, so it's kinda different brand names being produced in the same place or even the same factory....
Not all track is the same. You may find difference in the height, which will require shimming between manufacturers, or slightly different rail profiles, which can make connecting pieces together awkward if one brand of rail joiner is too tight or too loose with dissimilar adjacent sections.
DCC is supposed to be the same from brand to brand, but not all MTH engines are true DCC, rather their proprietary system called DCS. Even their so-called compatible decoders can not be completely configured using DCC, and they do not sell DCS decoders separately. I have avoided MTH for these reasons, even though they have a couple of engines I wouldn't mind having.
I always replace couplers with Kadees anyway, and I replace any plastic wheelsets with Intermountain for performance reasons.
I have been running HO trains since the early 1960s. My engines have all deteriorated to uselessness, but my old rolling stock lives on. Old Tyco, Crown, Mantua and Barney still serves with Walthers Proto and others made today. I'm proud of the diversity of my layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Someday I should write a comparison among GP38-2 seeing as I have 6 two Bachmann non-sound 2 sound value 1 Atlas with a Digitrax motor only DCC decoder and 1 MTH with sound. Various road names which can make comparing them hard.
If and when other manufacturers make geeps in a livery I want I will acquire them.
Joe Staten Island West
I was curious about your "mourn their loss" in regards to Proto 2000. Most of the locomotives I saw on Walthers website say "Discontinued when sold out". What did I miss? I was kind of out of the loop due to shoulder surgery for a while.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Medina1128 richhotrain I have a rule of thumb that I live by when buying locomotives. ~ BLI for steam ~ Atlas for diesels ~ Intermountain for hard to find diesel roadnames ~ Athearn when all else fails ~ Bachmann when truly desperate ~ MTH, avoid at all costs ~ Proto 2000, mourn their loss Rich I was curious about your "mourn their loss" in regards to Proto 2000. Most of the locomotives I saw on Walthers website say "Discontinued when sold out". What did I miss? I was kind of out of the loop due to shoulder surgery for a while.