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| EXPERT ADVICE: What are the best HO DIESEL loco brands? | ||
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Moderators: site admin, Joe Fugate, Spinpuff
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| Author | Post | ||
| Joe Fugate |
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   Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | Like always, there are difference experiences. I've been in the hobby nearly 40 years, and here's my take on the commonly available brands of HO diesels (steam locos not considered): Athearn: solid performer, but not spectacular. Genesis line is better. Older Blue Box Athearn (pre mid-90s) may have less-than-spectacular details and may run not-so-great. Bachmann: mediocre, Spectrum series is better. Atlas: older Atlas (pre-mid 90s) was about like Athearn, newer Atlas is excellent. Kato: always an excellent performer, details may be less-than-spectacular. Stewart/ProtoPower West: Equivalent to the Athearn Genesis line, almost as good as Atlas and Kato. Also available as just a motor and chassis -- often a good "guts" replacement option for BB Athearn or Proto2000. You can find their website here. Proto2000: Great detail, less-than-great performance. Diesel models are known to have drive train issues (cracked gears) and power pickup problems. As the Proto2000 locos age (and I work my locos hard) they are on my workbench as locos needing maintenance work more than any other brand. Many of my modeler friends steer clear of Proto2000 locos any more. They look great, and may run decent to start with, but they become a maintenance sink as they put on the miles. Most of my modeler friends have dumped their P2K stuff in favor of Atlas, Kato, Stewart/PPW, or Athearn Genesis diesel locos. Disclaimer: Steam loco performance experiences are not considered in this particular post and the manufacturer rankings will be different than what is given here for the diesel loco models. [ Edited Sat Oct 27 2007, 10:41AM ] Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting!  | ||
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| Huge Engine |
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  Registered Member #293 Joined: Thu Oct 25 2007, 11:05PM: posts: 3 | Hello Joe, Thanks for your advices. What's about BLI & Overland ? Cheers, A bad day on the beach is better than a good day at work | ||
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| Joe Fugate |
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| Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | Huge: I haven't yet tried Overland, and only recently tried BLI locos. I'm less than thrilled with factory installed sound, and the BLI loco performance is about like Athearn -- solid but not spectacular. My hesitation with factory-installed sound is the extra complexity it adds to maintaining the loco. Lots of extra piece-parts all over the chassis, which makes servicing the loco much more complex. When I install the sound myself, I know what everything is, and make it easy to disassemble the loco for servicing. A factory-installed sound loco designer's first goal is to cram it all into the chassis, and maintenance is a secondary concern. Kind of reminds me of the horror stories of car mechanics that have to cut a hole in the wheel well just to change spark plugs on a car's engine -- all because the designer never thought about maintenance. Same problem with factory installed sound locos. [ Edited Sat Oct 27 2007, 10:48AM ] Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting! | ||
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| Jim Fitch |
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| Registered Member #300 Joined: Tue Oct 30 2007, 05:49PM: posts: 1 | Joe, I have to say you pretty much hit the mark with the comments on the major brands. I'd just like to add to what you said based on my experiences. Atlas: I'd say the older "yellow box" Atlas were a notch or two above Athearn in terms of running qualities on the average. The Roco made models were a step above Athearn "blue box" and the KATO made Atlas of course were almost as good as KATO's! I had a couple of the Atlas GP7's and they were pretty smooth but not as quiet and smooth as my KATO GP35's. Stewart: (I can only speak for the F units) are equal to or better than Genesis regarding the chassis, but for the body/shell, Genesis is a clear winner due to the details, the paint jobs etc. I have some Rio Grande F3's (which are a mix of F3 and F7 phase details and they are gorgeous and better than brass in many ways! Proto 2000: I agree with your comments. They have nicely detailed and painted shells but the chassis are left wanting. I haven't been in the position to run mine much at all and I'm sorry to hear they are a maintenence sink. My only question is, if people are getting rid of them, what are they replacing certain models with like the phase I and II GP30's (I have 11 of those). Atlas, KATO and Stewart don't make equivelents of many Proto 2000. It seems we need a chassis replacement? Having grown up in Davis/Sacramento CA, I will always have a soft spot for Southern Pacific! Rio Grande - The Action Road | ||
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| Huge Engine |
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| Registered Member #293 Joined: Thu Oct 25 2007, 11:05PM: posts: 3 | Hello, As a beginner in the Modern era Diesel US Locs enthusiastic, i have actually 5 At/G, 1 At-rtr and 10 KATO. In term of traction & smootheness, KATO is top, AT-G is 2nd and At-rtr is 3rd. For details At-G is first follwed by KATO & At-rtr. I have no sound & no DCC, i prefer to keep things "simple", for an intensive exploitation, of course. In the other hand, sound & DCC is like "having cherry on the cake" but more complications & maintenance whitout talking about installation... These are not an easy choices...  Cheers, (hope they are not too many spelling errors, i'm not from the US)  A bad day on the beach is better than a good day at work | ||
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| Joe Fugate |
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| Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | Huge: Yes, Kato is tops, with Atlas being a very close second. Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting! | ||
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| Huge Engine |
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| Registered Member #293 Joined: Thu Oct 25 2007, 11:05PM: posts: 3 | Thanks 4 your advice Joe. I have to see very close one of those ATLAS Locs... See u A bad day on the beach is better than a good day at work | ||
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| shoggoth43 |
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| Registered Member #310 Joined: Sat Nov 17 2007, 12:23PM: posts: 1 | I have to agree. Kato is a fine watch. Details are not so nice as others. Many of the newer ones are building in a space for the speaker though. Atlas are VERY solid performers. Many of them available with sound. While I don't agree with Joe about the sound being a major problem for maintenance, it is something to keep in mind that you may need to move things around when you get in there. OTOH, the sound is already in there so you're not tinkering with that, BUT you'll have to hope it has all the lighting you need or you'll be opening stuff up and messing with it anyway. I also snagged some Genesis SD70s. They seem to very close to the Atlas but not quite as nice as the Kato SD70s I have. They did come with built in ditchlights though. BLI Bluelines are not so impressive. The detail is decent, the drivetrain is definitely noisier than the above. The SD9 I got blew up my brand new decoder. I'm still arguing that out with all of them. Not exactly confidence inspiring but there's always the occasional lemon so I don't want to mark it against them but it may be a problem with that particular run. Bluebox Athearns can be made to run VERY nice if you hardwire the power path, probably including the wheels, and possibly remotor. One costs time, the other costs money. You'll need to be adding details if you care about things like the pilots, handrails, grabirons, and eyebolts. Otherwise the molded details are good. If you don't tweak the powerpath they'll run OK, ish, and over time will probably give you issues. - Chris | ||
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