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Rating The Quality Of The Various Brands Of Locomotives

locomotiveDavid sent in a request to find out if any readers have a way of rating the various manufacturers for the quality and reliability of the locomotives they produce. If you have any suggestions for David, then please submit them using the COMMENTS link below this posting.

3 Responses to Rating The Quality Of The Various Brands Of Locomotives

  • mke says:

    I have bought 6 locos in the past 10 months. I have had to send 2 Atlas back for warranty repairs. They each stopped picking up electricity, both bought new.
    I bought 3 other Atlas locos, 1 used. They all are working fine. I bought oe Bachman and it woukdnt stay on the track at all. It looked nice but was a total flop. Returned for refund as it was new. It couldnt negotiate any of my Peco turnouts either thrown or straight None of the Atlas have that problem. N SCALE. I believe I have determined to buy Kato or Athern in the future, based on reviews

  • Graeme says:

    Hi I’ve bought a lot of brands of loco’s I would rate them 1st to 5th Kato,Athearn,Fleischmann,Helijan,Atlas. Followed by Trix, Marklin. And the rubbish Bachmann and Broadway limited in n scale

  • W Rusty Lane says:

    I have scrapped all of my Bachmann locos (steam) as they wouldn´t work past one year. Bachmann´s axles seem to spin inside of the wheels and I consider all older Bachmanns to be nothing short of junk. I´ve got older Life Like´s, Tyco, Athearn and Mantuas. They all perform quite well. The best engines are my Athearn and I have since decided to only buy Athearn or Atlas–but I do not own any Atlas at the present. My Mantyua Pacifics 4-6-2 are by far the best pulling engines. I had an older one I purchased from a friend and it worked so well that I bought another off of e-Bay and it works quite well also. I also have a couple of Mehano (IHC) steamers that are great–great for pulling power. I liked them so well I purchased another from e-Bay and it, too, is a great little engine. Also are the AHM engines which I have several. They too are great road diesels–I got two off of e-Bay and they run quite well. They are RS-2´s. So my rating would be: Athearn, Mantua, Mehano (IHC), AHM, Tyco, Life Like and Bachmann. The Bachmann diesels don´t seem to have the same problems that their steamers have. Hope this helps.

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