"Pig In a Pokes" - Your *worst* Model RR purchases ....

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TA462

QUOTE: Originally posted by HOScaleModelRailroader


Addendum:
I'm also including Walther's Trainline Alco FA-1s (Item Number 931-203) - most Trainline units I have run fine, quiet, and smooth. But these Alcos - total Walthers POS. I've got $15 LifeLike (pre-Walthers takeover) engines that run better.

Your in kind of a bad mood today eh? [:(]

Ouch! That's bad.

[HOScaleModelRailroader]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TA462

QUOTE: Originally posted by HOScaleModelRailroader


Addendum:
I'm also including Walther's Trainline Alco FA-1s (Item Number 931-203) - most Trainline units I have run fine, quiet, and smooth. But these Alcos - total Walthers POS. I've got $15 LifeLike (pre-Walthers takeover) engines that run better.

Your in kind of a bad mood today eh? [:(]

Yeah - I just gave up on those nice looking Alcos. This is the 6th set of motors and chassis Walthers has sent out - with each one it gets worse. The latest replacement set .... was just DOA. I decided to look at the motor - it was burnt *from* Walthers. Not a very happy camper today - that and the fact I have a friend with a new $260 Proto 2000 EMD GP20 with a bad motor that Walthers is unable to service at this time *due to considerable warrenty repair backlogs* - try again in 4 to 6 weeks.

[Anonymous]

My first locomotive was a Life-Like F40PH that I found on sale at walthers.com for 15 bucks. After the equivalent of about five laps, it moved with the efficiency of an ant with four of its legs fried off. Needless to say, this train is now in my "rest in pieces" drawer. I'm not sure if it will ever arise from the dead. And maybe that's a good thing.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: Yeah - I just gave up on those nice looking Alcos. This is the 6th set of motors and chassis Walthers has sent out - with each one it gets worse. The latest replacement set .... was just DOA. I decided to look at the motor - it was burnt *from* Walthers. Not a very happy camper today - that and the fact I have a friend with a new $260 Proto 2000 EMD GP20 with a bad motor that Walthers is unable to service at this time *due to considerable warrenty repair backlogs* - try again in 4 to 6 weeks.

I know what you mean. I have an Athearn Genesis 4-6-2 light pacific that came with a broken drive gear. I had the LHS order the part from Athearn in February. Haven't seen it yet. That POS cost $149. I'm about to chuck it in the bin and put paid to it. I won't be getting any more Genesis locos for awhile, if this is how they treat their customers. I get much faster service from Athearn when I order motors and gears and such for BB locos, usually about 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

mine was an athearn GP60. that thing could not even pull 10 cars.... terrible, the only engine I EVER regret getting.

Sean.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: mine was an athearn GP60. that thing could not even pull 10 cars.

Yeah! I've got one of those! I put a bunch of Temp-Lo in the top of the shell and now it pulls like nobody's business.

[Anonymous]

Proto 1000 RS-2s in NYC Lightning Stripe Livery. Pre-ordered so not to get shut out and paid top dollar. Expected two engines to pull eight car H.W. passenger train from IHC. Admittedly I did weight the cars to NMRA Specs, but I did add metal wheel sets so the cars are free rolling. RS-2s looked good day one, pulled everything nicely and then died. After hours in repair shop still couldn't pull empty hoppers at any decent speed. The longer they run, the slower they get. Still aggravated about them, maybe I'll re-motor one-day as they are now in storage with the rest of my stuff.

[tomikawaTT]

Not my own purchase, but something my sister found at a yard sale:

2-6-0T locomotive with buffers (possibly Italian prototype?) coupled to a PRR design slope-back tender, three assorted freight cars that looked like mold test rejects and a caboose that only a mother could love, along with five lengths of Italian-made brass flex track. No boxes, no power pack, no papers.

At $5.00, I think she got robbed!

Chuck

[Anonymous]

Walthers 90ft plastic turntable.

Athearn, two 4-6-2s and two 2-8-2s

Someone mentioned Bachmann Locos? The vast majority of my steam are Spectrum and run just great.

However, don't buy anything that's labeled plain "Bachmann" or anything that's labeled plain "Life-Like".

Life-Like P2K and P1K are great however.

[Agamemnon]

For me, the Bachmann DDA40X. Well, I was very young at the time and the loco is very, very big. The construction is ridiculously flimsy and I bet its maximum pull capacity is around half a dozen cars.

My best would have to be a Spectrum (I think) GP38 which still runs flawlessly after 5 years storage in an unheated, poorly-insulated attic. The irony is that the best and the worst are my only American MRR stuff, and none of my rolling stock has applicable couplers for me to use either (most have the old Euro hoop couplings).

[BRAKIE]

The junkiest locomotive I ever owned was a Kato NW2.That thing was a piece of crap from the factory..[:(!] Never could figure out what the problem was.[:(]
Can't say that about my 4 Kato GP35s tho'.[:D]

[emdgp92]

My worst purchase has to be the Athearn Baldwin S12. This thing has *never* run right. Even after taking it apart to the frame, it's never run very well. Odd, considering my F7s (including the one that hit the floor), GP7, RDC and other Athearn stuff runs great.

[joeyegarner]

My worst would be an Ebay purchase I made about a month ago... I found a heck of a deal on a Athearn BB Gp35,(SOO) I was getting it home with shipping for a low price of less than $14.95 WOW!! Then I looked back at the auction!?!?!? The loco I had just won had no handrails, and no driveshafts....well this is just wonderful. So, after some searching here at home I managed to come up with the driveshafts, but I still dont have any handrails for it and there is nothing I can do about the broken tab that holds it all together...... Read your auction!! LOL.

Oh! One more thing, I also bought a RS3 Made by AHM that I knew had problems, but I had fixed several GP-18s so this would be easy right? HA! this thing is a totaly different animal, it has direct drive over one set of wheels and comutator was burned through!! No chance of repairing so far, I like the looks of the RS locos but don't have an operational one yet. (9.00 bucks on Ebay).

These are the most recent, of course I made all the Tyco Lifelike and Bachman purchases as a young teen like the rest of you.

[Darth Santa Fe]

I bought a car kit from my LHS a while ago, and when I got it home, one of the main parts that holds almost everything together was missing![:O] I took it back less than 2 days later and exchanged for something else, but I don't remember what I exchanged it for. But I guess it turned out to be a good purchase after all.[:D]

I also got an AHM FP45 off eBay for $12 a few years ago. The commutator had been oiled before it was shipped, and it ruined the motor. I ended up putting a new motor in, but I may get a different motor later, because the current one only has a single shaft. But at least it runs.[:D]

I got a very old Rivarossi U25C off eBay last year knowing it had problems. I got the thing running, and the shell is fine, but it could use a new motor. The current motor is loud, and I have to give the thing a light whack on the shell to make it run sometimes. Other than that, it's fine.[:D]

So I guess I haven't had any really bad purchases so far.[:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit

Probably a Bachmann On30 0-4-2 Porter. Pretty much every other Bachmann loco has been ok, apart from quartering and gauge problems on steamers. This thing seems to have a gear problem that makes it jump vertically once every wheel rotation. I've had it apart a few times and failed utterly to figure out the problem, so it sits boxed on a shelf. I had every intention of fitting one of the Backwoods Miniatures detailing kits but it's not worth spending more on a loco that doesn't run properly. Worst £30 I ever spent...

Mine has the same problem. Just loosen the rear screw holding the bottom cover plate. I'm going to try to increase clearance for the one gear that sticks out,
but loosening the plate works fine for now.

Juan

[Anonymous]

- Walthers 90ft plastic turntable.

- Athearn 4-6-2

- Athearn 2-8-2

[HoosierDaddy]

A couple of years ago, when I started in the hobby, I bought a mixed lot of cars and locos for about $25 off of E-bay. I got an assortment of about 10 tyco and lifelike cars, and three Bachmann engines. The locos where two F7's and a GP-40 that were easily 20 years old. Well, the GP-40 lasted about a day before the pancake motor burned up, and one of the F7 lasted only about a week longer than that. For some reason, the other F7 hung on, loudly grinding around until about a month ago.

I had a Bachmann spectrum 2-8-0 that need some repair work, and was still under warrenty, so I decided to ship all four Bachmanns in for repair at once to save on shipping. In less than a week, I got back two brand new FT's, a new GP-40 and a replacement 2-8-0 all for the $30 it cost to have them replaced under the lifetime warrenty. All in all, it wasn't that bad of a deal in the end.

HD

[cf-7]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit

The mechanism seems to be ok if I drop the axles out and run it using a couple of jumper leads - it's very smooth and quiet. Seems to be something wrong with either the axle gear or the gear that drives that. I'll dig it out again sometime and have another go at fixing it - I rather fancied the idea of a small On30 diorama but this thing is useless!

I purchased a B'mann 0-4-0 Porter several years ago. When I got it home, it also ran like yours. I took it apart and found a little piece of plastic between 2 teeth of the axle gear. It was stuck in place because of the heavy white grease! I removed it, and it ran great![:)]

Chuck

[Medina1128]

I bought an F7A/B/A set from eBay once. They looked fine and everything went well until I put them on the track. One A/B set were old Athearn, the other A unit was an old Mantua. This one STILL sits in the box in a corner. The Athearn units, however, have become stellar units. After repowering the powered A unit, detailing them with a kit from Detail Associates, adding a constant/directional lighting circuit, they just need a new set of streamliner cars from Walthers. All things considered, like Metro, I WIN!!

I picked up a Genesis powered B unit at a train show, and now have a good looking/good running set of A/B/B units.

[Anonymous]

--->E-Z track turnouts<------

but, on another note, i'm not having that many problems with the bachmann dash-8's. Sure the couplers are low and one of them just stopped working and has never looked back, but they're OK for the price I paid ($30.00-ish)

[davekelly]

My worst purchase? Hmmmmmmm. I'd have to go with the MRC PE and my first BLI locomotive (CNJ Heavy Mike). I'm now totally hooked on DCC and Sound (is there a 12 step program available?).

On the other hand - the smile meter has hit new highs!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by davekelly

My worst purchase? Hmmmmmmm. I'd have to go with the MRC PE and my first BLI locomotive (CNJ Heavy Mike). I'm now totally hooked on DCC and Sound (is there a 12 step program available?).

On the other hand - the smile meter has hit new highs!!

C'mon,,,,you know better
DCC is either 14,28,or 128 steps!!!!!!!!![:D]

[Dave Vollmer]

My worst... I spent nearly $800 in 2003 on a PSC brass N scale Pennsy K4. It was absolutely beautiful. I won it on eBay while I was deployed to Iraq, so I couln't test it until I got home two months later. It didn't run well on my old layout, but I figured it was my 3% grades and 11" radius curves. Fair enough. Well, I'm working on a new layout with 13.5" minimum curves and no grades. I tested it out last week using DCC in analog. It popped, smoked, and died. Smoke! Not from the smokestack, either. From the motor! I know brass and DCC are not always best friends, but...

I may be taking it to an LHS that does repairs. But is that throwing good money after bad?

[brothaslide]

I purchased an MRC Prodigy DCC system. The system itself is not bad but it became obsolete rather quickly. It's sitting in a box collecting dust now.

[Budliner]

my doodle bug yuck what a load

[Anonymous]

On eBay, I bought a lot of N Scale items, listed under HO Scale, for cheap, to resell, in seperate auctions. I think I paid $20 for six cars, all Atlas, except for one Bachmann. I ended up LOSING money on the whole deal.

Also on eBay, I bought a rare CSX/SBD covered hopper with "very slight glue residue near hatches." I ended up with a gluey mess. To beat it all, the guy was a jerk, and wouldn't accept a return.



Live and learn.

Matt

[Anonymous]

Had a few beers one night, went on e-bay and purchased four Roundhouse box cars - did not read the description (which was poor) properly and I ended up with four 34' Overton box cars which I thought looked more like AAR style of cars, somehow would not be suited with a GP9......they are going back on ebay soon. And I am never mixing e-bay and drinking again!

Regards,

Stephen.

[Anonymous]

Probably at the top is the Life Like grass mat, Anything Bachmann, Well until I saw the new Athern stuff that was on the list, I fell for the "It's the last one" gimick a time or two when I was younger. Yeah the woodland scenic glue was dumb, I thought I was getting a really good deal once on a set of 8 tank cars, I payed $3 a piece and when I got them home and tried to run them well then I discovered IHC quality. I have recently replaced all the trucks and wheels and fresh black paint. well they atleast look like there a $3 car now....

[jeffrey-wimberly]

IHC tank cars and Tyco tank cars have one thing in common. They derail at the drop of a hat! Any hat! Put more weight in them and they'll usually work well.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: I spent nearly $800 in 2003 on a PSC brass N scale Pennsy K4.

I would never spend that much on a loco, no matter how good it looks! $300, maybe.