What are the best N scale manufacturers

[Anonymous]

This may SEEM like an obvious question, BUT I'm kinda new at this. What do YOU think is the "best VALUE" in N scale. I realize in a "perfect world" we'd ALL have nothing BUT Kato (correct?), but HEY I don't drive a Bentley........
So, what are your thoughts on quality-vs-cost in N scale locos and rolling stock?

[MAbruce]

I came back into N-scale after a 15 year break a couple of years ago – so I had a lot of catching up to do as well.

Kato (as you already surmised) is on top of the loco market. I don’t own any, but from what I have heard and seen, they are wonderful. But the prices they command are not always so wonderful (that’s why I don’t own any – at least not yet).

Atlas makes great locos, rolling stock, and track. In fact, I consider them the all around best in most all major categories. The MSRP on their locos may be about the same as Kato, but because of better availability, you have a far better chance of finding good deals on them (and they are about equal to Kato – especially their latest releases). I am concerned about Atlas’s latest rolling stock releases. While they have improved their quality (which was good to begin with), their prices are getting a bit high.

While LifeLike makes lower end rolling stock (not all bad), they do make nice locos (particularly within the last 5 years). The prices on these are great too. I have SD7’s & GP20’s. The SD7 is no slouch, but the GP20 rivals anything Atlas or Kato makes. I also hear great things about their new mallet.

Bachmann is at the low end of the lineup, but they bear close watching. Their new steam engine (2-8-0) has had some ravings, and they have some new (and supposedly improved) locos on the way.

Micro Trains has always been the granddaddy of N-scale rolling stock (and now make an FT). They have also commanded the highest prices. Other higher end companies include Intermountain (which now also produces locos – a real nice FT, SD40T-2, and an F3 on the way), Red Caboose, Deluxe, LBF. All make higher end rolling stock.

Some of the value manufacturers are MDC/Roundhouse, Bowser (icldues Deleware Valley). If you can find the older Roundhouse kits, they can usually be picked up for a song. They trucks may be junk (replace with MT or Accumate), but they are nicely detailed for the money.

Athearn is the newest player, and have rolled out a few items. I’ve heard mixed reviews, and they seem to be taking their sweet time about rolling anything more out.

That’s it in summary. I’m sure more can be added, and there will be some differing opinions, so I’ll leave that up to others.

[Anonymous]

I've enjoyed everything I've bought from Life-Like--very affordable and runs well. I usually buy undecorated locos, then paint,decal and detail them myself, so I like their basic models that I can "spice" up myself! Yes, Kato is great--very smooth-running, but expensive! I have not liked Con-Cor's locos--too "toy-like", and not very smooth-running!

[Anonymous]

KATO, hands down. But you need to apply for a bank loan before you can afford most of what they offer!

[DSchmitt]

The more recent Life Like diesels are a good value, but you have to add the cost of conversion to Micro Trains compatable couplers

Roundhouse cars "new and used", older "used" Atlas cars, Bachman cars "new and used" Used are a particuarly good value if they have been equipped by the former owner with Micro Trains or compatable trucks/couplers

They aren't always as accurate as the latest Atlas, Micro Trains, Intermountain, Red Caboose" etc, but have good detail shells and are no where near as expensive.

The expensive cars have closer to scale brake wheels, underbody detail and are more likely to have correct detail for a specific prototype (i.e. style of ends and doors on a box car)

Unfortunately for the buyer older Micro Trains cars usually go for "collectors" prices.

[willy6]

your question is like saying "what is the best car to buy"? anything manufactured has it's pros and cons.all the N scale items i bought for my son's layout came down to what the wallet can bear.to me it comes down to how far are you going into realism on a layout and like buying a car , how long will the stuff last.

[bluepuma]

I don't regret any Kato loco I've purchased. I consider it money well spent, E8A/B, P42 (x2), F7A/B, SD45, SD70 (x2) but can't say that about anything else, but some of my Lifelike's were very good values, SD7, PA/B, E7A/B, SW900/1200 (x2), E6A/B, F40PH (x2), FA2/FB2, and FA1/FB1. My Atlas SD60M's are nice, but I sure don't like my SD35's or GP9TT, the SD50 set was not as good as the SD60 set. The Atlas have nice detail in painted handrails, look better than Kato. Like the F59PHI set, nothing wrong with that, should have white headlights tho'. I tried Model power cars a couple of years ago, too light, LL cars in a set, too light. MT cars are great if your couplers match, recent Atlas cars are nice. Wasn't that happy with ConCor cars bought at LHS, ordered a smoothside passenger set, trucks bind, not enough weight, the Riverossi heavyweight wheels squeek and coupler hight seems off for most other locos. I'm very happy with my Kato passenger, Lark (even if not matching the prototype, looks nice and I like it, it was the first passenger set I could get), and my Kato Budds and Superliners look great, run great. My Bachmann F7A/B sound terrible, it hurts to hear them run (sorta like the GP9TT), no slow speed, but they look nice, and do seem to run, as does the Main Street Trolley. There are some LL around marked F7, but they must be on FA2 chassis, look nice, sound good running, just a bit too long and no B unit. Junk rolling stock needs work and weight, wheels squeek, drag like the brakes are set, and the Rapido couplers are way too big, sag, come loose.

You always pay for what you get, but you don't always get what you pay for, quality in some lines seems inconsistant, a good set of both numbers in one model run doesn't mean nearly the same thing in another run will be good.

My PA/PB LL sets from N scale supply sure seem better than the same model in a different roadname purchased locally or from another dealer. Was someone cherry picking? About $60 each for good ones w/o B, $35 for the lesser ones, including dummy B.

If you plan on living a while, running the same trains, the good stuff is worth it, and if the price is right, LL is a good value, even the GP38 models run nice, gave me a chance to double then triple head for $20 each for the 2nd two.

[Anonymous]

I would encourage you to buy fewer high-quality engines (and cars) rather than doing as I did and getting more cheap stuff to pad out a fleet. In time, you'll manage to collect all the rolling stock that you really want, and you'll end up being disappointed by the cheap stuff eventually. As I have mentioned before on other threads, I am in the process of replacing most of my former fleet, because it is comprised of Bachmann, Model Power, and older Atlas stuff; I had dreams of engine yards full of SD's and long trains of colorful cars, but not the budget to get stuff that would really run.

Now, I am buying the equivalent Kato, newer Atlas, and Life-Like stock to retire most of the old stuff, which means I didn't save any money at all. I'm taking it one locomotive at a time, investing the time to bring each one up to a certain standard of quality, and I'm discovering that I get a lot mroe enjoyment out of one Kato SD-45 that runs great than I ever got out of 4 Model Power SD-45's that died quickly.

I got started in N-scale about 20 years ago, and my first deisel was a Norfolk & Western RS-3 made by a new company at the time called Kato, marketed by Atlas. That engine is still a core asset of my fleet, and runs as good as ever. Make the investment, and reward yourself a little.

[Anonymous]

as most of you have said kato is the best in my mind but the newer bachmann spectrum stuff is not to bad, or the newer atlas, perferably dcc ready.

[MythInk]

I find that Kato, Atherns, Micro Trains, Atlas are the best in that order.

Do not BUY BACHMAN or MODEL POWER. Also these two are compatiable with each other but not with ones I recomended.

Kato, Atherns, Micro Trains and Atlas knucle connectors are all compatiable with each other.

 

FYI What I recomed is the Following.

1) decide what rail road you want follow i.e. I chose SP aka Southern Pacific.

This will help you keep you in budget i.e. you wont buy every locomotive out their.

2) Decide on Era or mixed I run Diesel and one Steam the 4449.

3) Decide how big a layout you want? I have a large i.e. entire Room. and Small coffee table size. If your going with a small layout this will also limit your purchasing.

a) no long cars

b) trucks must be 2 axel max i.e. no 3 axel can't make the tight curves.

4) Last but not least do I want to go DCC or Analog.

DCC is were all the fun really begins, but will start out near $250 going with entry level Digitrax. NCR and Digitrax are two you will see at most Clubs.

Talking about Clubs find a model railroad club near you and visit. Ask questions...

[Metro Red Line]

I became an N scaler 10 years ago, and the N scale market, in terms of quality and quantity, has never been better. Don't forget the new-school N scale manufacturers that hve changed the game forever: Deluxe Innovations, BLMA (now part of Atlas), ExactRail, Fox Valley Models, Red Caboose and the up-and-coming ScaleTrains.com. Things like low-profile metal wheels, prototypical ride height, underbody details, body-mounted couplers and crisp paint/printing were almost unheard of 30 years ago. N scale is really just a smaller version of HO scale these days.

 

I really wouldn't worry about "what is the best manufacturer" because a lot of manufacturers, even some of the old ones, are coming out with better-quality trains. Instead, just try to avoid anything manufactured before 1990 and you'll be just fine.

 

[BRAKIE]

For the best of the best locomotives Atlas hands down.

[Anonymous]

Have you noticed you are responding to a 13 year old thread?

Things have moved along quite a bit since the thread was started.

[riogrande5761]

Sir Madog

Have you noticed you are responding to a 13 year old thread?

Things have moved along quite a bit since the thread was started.

Hah hah.  Yes they have.  There are a couple of newer N scale companies that have sorely tempted me - they are Trainworx and Wheels of Time.  They make stuff I would love to have if I were in N-scale.

[BRAKIE]

Sir Madog

Things have moved along quite a bit since the thread was started.

 

Still Atlas locomotives is the best of the best as far as reliability and quality. My  N Scale roster was 100% Atlas and if I were to return to N Atlas would be my locomotive of choice.

I been out of N since 2012 but,keep up with the new models. I still read  N Scale railroading.

I was very tempted to buy two Atlas W&LE GP40s when they was release.

[Anonymous]

How does Kato stand up?

In my N scale days, the Japanese prototype steamers I had were nicely detailed and ran smoothly.

[BRAKIE]

Kato could be better if they had a wider range of locomotives and their NW2 is on the noisy side. I don't recall seeing Kato's Japanese prototype steamers but,my CD&B was diesel powered.

As you may recall the Atlas/Kato GP9 was a farce since the trucks spacing was way off-look more like a GP9 body on a trolley car chassis. I will admit it was a smooth runner. My plans of buying 4 fell through due to the trucks. I was disappointed as I looked forward to those Geeps.

The Atlas/Kato RS3 was a jewel that should have set the standards but,as you may recall it stalled on Atlas switches due to the long insulated frog while other N Scale engines of the time had no issues. I like these RS3s(my CD&B had seven) so much I changed out all of my Atlas switches for Peco.

[JL Chicago]

I've had my best experiences with Kato. Probably the widest variety of old and new, plenty of passenger trains, and good selection of Japanese and European trains too. Too many of the others only focus only on freight or old trains. That's fine if that's all you are interested in but if you like variety from around the world or newer stuff, Kato is the place to go. Quality is very good and they are the best runners on my layout. I especially like the fact that they don't need lube out of the box like some brands. Bachmann, I've had my worst experiences with them. Most of their locos are poor runners and need constant lube to run smoothly. I finally just stopped running them. But I continued using the Spectrum powerpack I had thinking that was okay. Turns out it was not okay. The pack was not delivering clean DC current. Actually had stray AC current mixed in. I threw out one Hiawatha steam loco blaming the loco because it never ran smoothly but jerked around. Just recently bought a Kato TGV Duplex that also wouldn't run right. Finally wondered if the Powerpack was bad and switched to a Kato powerpack and everything runs great. The Bachmann Spectrum powerpack was actually my second powerpack from them. The first one was a basic powerpack that came with a train set and would not reverse at all, so I paid for the Spectrum which is supposed to be their top of the line. That's pretty shabby in my book and I don't plan to buy from them ever again.