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which manufacturer of trains is the best?

Posted by Anonymous

on Sun, Feb 4 2007 5:04 PM

new to the hobby and was thinking of getting N scale trains.
unsure as to which brand to choose. does it matter? because
some brands are twice of other brands for similar car.

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Posted by underworld

on Sun, Feb 4 2007 7:08 PM

Best to go to a hobby shop that has an operational layout so you can try things out.

underworld Big Smile [:D]

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Posted by bighead

on Sun, Feb 4 2007 7:42 PM

underworld wrote:

Best to go to a hobby shop that has an operational layout so you can try things out.

underworld

welcome! and

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Posted by Anonymous

on Sun, Feb 4 2007 7:45 PM

which brand is the one everyone buys? i'm leaning towards atlas.

Posted by CMSTPP

on Sun, Feb 4 2007 8:11 PM

Atlas is good maker of model trains. You could also go with Kato. They make some really good locomotives too. Atlas usually makes the older locomotives such as the GP9 or GP38-2. Kato is good when you're looking for newer locomotives such as the SD70M or SD40-2.

It depends on what you're going to model.

Happy railroading

James

The Milwaukee Road

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Posted by coborn35

on Mon, Feb 5 2007 10:44 AM

KATO and Atlas are probaly the best for N-scale. But on the other and, i have never modeled N-scale.

Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."

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Posted by Railfan1

on Mon, Feb 5 2007 4:42 PM

"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"

Posted by Andrew Falconer

on Sat, Feb 10 2007 11:11 AM

Try Atlas and Kato first.

Andrew

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Posted by SP9811

on Tue, Feb 13 2007 10:53 AM

Kato, Atlas, Intermountain, Delaware Valley, Micro Trains, Athearn...all good brands. Some I missed.

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Posted by Anonymous

on Tue, Feb 13 2007 9:18 PM

Bachmann is one of the best in my opinion. They have good detail and have come a long way. Kato is good. Atlas is good as long as it is a diesel. Their steam locomotives lack detail and are out of scale. The german makers are probably the best, but are the most expensive. Like everyone says go check out a hobby store or two.

Posted by Railfan1

on Thu, Feb 15 2007 6:41 PM

Atlas

"It's a great day to be alive" "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been......"

Posted by al-in-chgo

on Sun, Feb 18 2007 1:15 AM

Railfan1 wrote:
Atlas

Whatever brand you favor, pay a little extra money for nickel-plated track. And I agree with you, even HO people can have a hard time placing N equipment on the tracks properly. I'd advise getting an extra re-railer; they can come in handy.

al-in-chgo

Posted by RR Redneck

on Fri, Feb 23 2007 9:45 AM

In N scale, I highly recommend anything you can afford. While it is no big secret that you get what you pay for, the quality of several of the "low end" models (Life Likes, Model Power, and Bachmann for example) has damatically improved to a level where they are dependable and good looking and running models.

Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.

Posted by jspinner

on Fri, Feb 23 2007 1:47 PM

kaos11 -

You can't go wrong with Katos and Atlas locomotives and cars.

jspinner

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/36623/ppuser/7075

Posted by mmartian22

on Fri, Feb 23 2007 10:51 PM

these are my favorite manufacturers of which are qaulity products first is pcm, bli kato and atlas. and good all around locos would be athearn , i own alot of steam locos 40 and still counting. kato and atlas gold series are some of the best locos i own. for steam bli and pcm are great engines of 90% of what i own and never had a problem with them. just my thoughts.