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
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.
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.
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
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
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
G Paine I try to stay with the middle of the road
Eh? Road kill.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
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 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
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
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.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
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.
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.