Greetings from Great Britain - information and advice needed!

[Anonymous]

Would some kind American model railroaders please help me with some information?

I am a British (of Chinese ancestry) fan of railways #8211; both prototype and model. I have over the years collected a number of British outline OO gauge models, with the idea of building a permanent model railway layout when I retire in about 10 years time. However, a few months ago, a dormant interest in American railroads was revived. As a result, I have decided to sell my British OO stuff, and get some American outline HO models instead, with the aim of eventually building a layout representing an American railroad scene in the late #8216;50s or early #8216;60s (the cab unit diesel era). I have just bought my first American HO model, an Athearn Genesis EMD F9 in NP colours.

I need information and advice because the American HO scene is larger and much more complex than the British OO one. In British OO, we basically have only 4 companies producing ready-to-run locos and/or rolling stock, of which one only produces freight cars, and another has only produced diesel locos up till now. There are only two companies #8211; Hornby and Bachmann #8211; who produce a wide variety of locos, passenger and freight cars etc. There are also a number of firms which produce kits for locos, passenger cars etc., but most of these require quite a bit of time and skill.

I would be grateful if some of you would help me by listing manufacturers of American HO locos, passenger and freight cars, indicating the sort of scope of what they manufacture, and its quality #8211; preferably ready-to-run, but very easy kits would be of some interest to me also.

Very many thanks to anyone who can inform and advise me in this.

Best Wishes to all American model railroaders.

Frank
(Rev. Frank Hung #8211; London, England)

[randybc2003]

Go to this website and check out the "links to Manufacturers". Then go to "Locomotives" & "rollingstock" In particular, check out "Walthers". They are large manufacturere and supplier of many differen types of model railroad supplies.
By the way, what does #8211 mean? Itdoesn't click with me. Do you mean 87.1"1 ratio as in HO?
Randy

[NZRMac]

Welcome to the forum!! I wouldn't sell anything, I sold all my MRR stuff years ago and have always regretted it. Hang on the OO stuff it will probably gain in value.

Ken.

[selector]

Welcome, from one of the Colonies. [;)] Glad to have another voice from across the Pond. I, too, am confused with #8211.

HO locomotive manufacturers include Kato, Marklin, Broadway Limited Imports, Life Like, Trix, Athearn, and Atlas. You will find that they all produce prototypical locos in both steam and diesel. As in all things, the more you can spend, the better the product, all things being equal.

There is a concerted effort by both users and manufacturers to embrace Digital Command and Control (DCC), often with full spectrum sound effects in the higher end.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by randybc2003

Go to this website and check out the "links to Manufacturers". Then go to "Locomotives" & "rollingstock" In particular, check out "Walthers". They are large manufacturere and supplier of many differen types of model railroad supplies.
By the way, what does #8211 mean? Itdoesn't click with me. Do you mean 87.1"1 ratio as in HO?
Randy

Thanks, Randy. I don't know what the "#8211" means as I didn't type it in my original message! Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that I originally typed it in Microsoft Word, and transferred it to the Forum, and it refers to some command procedure in the Word program. As I know next to nothing about PC technology, I am really at a loss to explain it.

[simon1966]

Hello Frank, I woud like to add my welcome to the forum. I am a Brit, living on the left side of the pond and also have some Hornby and Bachmann Branchline stuff. My main modelling interest is US based.

With the $ as low as it is, you are going to find that US prototypes in HO are incredible value compared to British OO scale models. There are also some excellent brands.

In no particular order.

Atlas, LifeLike Proto 2000 and Proto 1000, Broadway Limited, Stewart and Athearn Genesis make some of the best locomotives available today. I personally like rolling stock kits and like Accurail and Branchline as well as Proto 2000 kits. Most of these rolling stock makers also have R to R models.

I would tent to avoid the lower end Lifelike, Bachmann and model power locomotives and rollingstock. If you are going to go to the trouble of having something shipped to the UK, you might as well get better models.

Walthers makes a great line of passenger cars, but they do need quite generous curves to run, which may be a problem if you have space constraints on your layout (If you live in London, you ost likely do have space constraints!!)

All the rage now is the release of Sound and DCC equipped locomotives. I think all the makers above, with the exception of Stewart have done this. You can expect to pay around $200 or more for a locomotive equipped this way, but it really is great.

Anyway, good luck with the new interest.

[steveblackledge]

Hello KEN, i am in Lancashire, i get my stuff (HO scale) from Trainworld in New York
http://www.trainworld1.com/index.html , they are a reliable company to buy from, like other members say Go for Life Like's Proto 2000 line of equipment, Broadway limited Imports, Athearn Genesis and Atlas to name a few, Some come with the new QSI sound system on board that works on standard DC power control, PECO sell American style turnouts / points in there 83 LINE brand, Ask any question you like and we will all give you an honest answer

[jon grant]

Frank, try this Yahoo group for British-based American outline modellers

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/americanrrmodelling/


Jon

[tatans]

When you refer to "American" does this mean you are dismissing the second largest country in the world ? what about Mexico? And welcome, always nice to have new "Europeans" on the forum.

[Anonymous]

Hi Frank.

[#welcome][#welcome] Just a warm welcome from the Canadian eastcoast. I think the previous replies will give you the information you need and more.

Happy MRRing.

[Anonymous]

Some manufacturers have multiple lines. Athearn's top of the line is Genesis, Bachmann's is Spectrum, Life-Like is the Proto series and Walther's has introduced Gold Line to distinguish from their lesser offerings. More detail and more realistic paint vs. the no glazing and colored plastic for some of their cheapest lines.

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for all the welcomes, and for valuable information and links.

Many of the companies I have come across, in the short time (so far) that I have been interested in American HO models, were already familiar names - but Broadway Limited and Stewart were new to me. Clicking on Stewart links takes you to Bowser, who I believe used to make kits, but not ready-to-run models. Is this a new development for them?

Also, what is the difference between Proto 1000 and Proto 2000?

Is it possible to run the newest American HO DCC locos (such as BLI ones) on DC, without modification?

And yes, I do include Canada in "American". Many USA railroads seem to have had Canadians play a very prominent part in their establishment - and quite a few of these railroads seem to have been actually owned by Canadian companies.

Regards to you all,

Frank

[Anonymous]

Think I can answer some of those. You can run BLI locos on analog control, and retain some of the sound functions - there's even a device named the "sidekick" that connects to your DC system to allow you to activate the sounds. The snag with this is the way the sounds are activated under DC - some of them involve flicking the direction switch quickly (which will cause any other locos to suddenly come to a halt and reverse). You might want to look at the Bachmann DCC system - cheapest out there, www.ehattons.com stock it. If you can afford to I'd recommend buying something a little higher-specification (Lenz is my personal favourite, there are others out there but I've not used them).

Proto 1K and 2K locos use the same type of chassis (and very good they are too) but used to have different standards of detail. P1K used to have moulded-on handrails and fewer fine details, though the latest P1K locos seem to be headed towards the same standard as P2K (the Alco RS11 would be a good example). Neither range should disappoint, and I hear their customer service is superb. Hope this is of help!

[steveblackledge]

I run BLI loco's on my DC layout, just one thing to remember BLI loco's or any fitted with the QSI sound system only start to move over 5 volts, so you can't run them in multiple with standard DC control loco's