RAILforum: One Modelers Ranking of Loco Manufacturors. HO Scale

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Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :

Hello Everyone.

Several people have e-mailed me about my ranking of locomotive manufacturors that I wrote in response to a question by NewHavenFan. Due the large volume of responses, I thought I would repost it here. I rank these manufuactures from personal experince that I have had with them. I am in the custom locomotive painting business and an active modeler who has been in the hobby for 16 years. I have also belonged to three clubs in that time. Without further inturruption, my ranking of locomotive manufacturors

My ranking of locomomotive manufactures in according to performance and detail.

1. Proto 2000/1000. Very smooth running units. Very nice detail and lots of extra parts to configure each locomotive to match its real life counter part. DCC Ready

2. Athearn Genisis. Same as above. But come factory assembled. DCC Ready

3. Atlas. Very smooth running gear and molding. All engineering done in Austria by ROCO. Some models sub-contracted to KATO. Very nice painting and detailing. All models produced since 1994, DCC Ready. As of 2001, DCC equiped.

4. Spectrum. Very nice smooth running locomotives. Constantly upgrades line so a ready comparison is not easily given. Though consisitanly has smooth running and good detailing. Their steamers are the best in the Business. DCC ready

5. Kato. Best running mechinisms in the business. But I have yet to see a decent paint job come from these people. My ultimate locomotive would be a Kato Drive with a Proto 2000 shell DCC ready

6. Walthers Trainline. Smooth running locomotive with nice paint and detail. Ready to run. Engineered for Walthers by ROCO of Austria, and produced at Walthers plant in China under ROCO supervision. Not DCC ready but upgrading to is is easily achived.

7. Athearn. Nice running locomotive with a rugged drive train and study instillation. My #1 reccomendation for beginners. Nice detail and paint. Not DCC ready and conversion can be tricky if your not cafeful. Best bargain for detail, performance, and price.

I would also like to mention the offerings by Stewart and Intermountain. I hear these are also quality brands but I have no first hand experince from which I can verify these claims.

I hope you all have found this useful.

Thank you,

James.

Posted by Chuck Walsh (Member # 677) on :

If possible, for the benifit of Newbies if you could post this list like once a month or every two months.
Would you know the warranty time periods on these manufacturers?
Thanks for the reminder.

Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :

If I think of it I sure will. As for warranties though I have found that anything but the most baisic of assenbly will void warranty. So I dont keep track of those.

Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :

Many people have asked me to repost this. So here it is for all to look through and coment on one more time.

Posted by Tom H (Member # 53) on :

HEY CHALLENGER!
Which do you think is best - DCC READY or DCC EQUIPPED?

THIS SHOULD BE DELETED. SEE NEXT RESPONSE

[This message has been edited by Tom H (edited 03-04-2003).]

Posted by Tom H (Member # 53) on :

HEY CHALLENGER!
Which do you think is best - DCC READY or DCC EQUIPPED? If everything came DCC EQUIPPED, where does that leave the poor guy (myself) that does not have DCC? Not to mention that even if a DCC EQUIPPED loco can be used on a non-DCC layout, I would be paying extra for something I cannot use?????

Tom
Keep on Railroading

Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :

The pace that technology is advancing. The issiue of DCC equipped vs DCC ready is fast becoming a non issiue. The decoder that Atlas now puts in its locomotives is a manual dual mode decoder. You can turn it off if you want and if you go to a club that has DCC, you can turn it back on. And all one needs to do is remove the dynamic brake hatch and move the plug over to the desired paramiters. With DCC ready, you can install a decoder if you would like. But if you want to use dual mode decoders, you have to make your own arragments for acess. There are automatic Dual mode decoders. But you are still acessingthe decoders rather than bypassing them as in the Atlas Situation. Also the price of DCC decoders has been dropping fast lately. The Dual mode decoder is now down to 10 bucks in list price. And I know they are making money off the things because I am always having to back order them. I suspect that pretty soon that the Decodrs will be down to the cost of a conventional circut board in about a year or so and the extra costs will be nonexistant.

As fort he state of DCC, While I doubt it will ever really outright replace conventional Block Control, Its presence will soon so dominate the market, that It would not suprise me of the top line train sets come with DCC systems rather than Power packs. With Dual mode Decoders, The cab control holdouts can still have the new stuff, yet the new DCC guys can run it with out any conversion problems what so ever.