Worst N Scale Locomotive Brands

Comments · 236

• OL

  @OldcampRanch · 1 year ago

  The whole idea that a company allows poor products to go out is discouraging.

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• PH

  @Phorhesa · 1 year ago

  Back many years ago when Life-Like brought out the GP18s, I bought 2 of those at a train show I was running trains at, early in the morning of the first day, those locos ran almost non-stop for the entire three day show, better then some of the more expensive models.

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• US

  @user-bm5rs4cm3e · 1 year ago (edited)

  In my opinion Kato N Scale locomotives are the best quality and strongest runners. High quality motors and components. You have a choice of plain DC, DCC, and upgraded DCC with sound. You aren't forced into fitting them with proprietary decoders that may or may not even be available to buy. Kato locomotives can remain in a fleet for years with minimal maintenance and still run right out of the box.

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• TN

  @tnpotomacrr4792 · 1 year ago

  I love Atlas. The only problem in the last 30 years was with the first run SD-50. The tower gears were poorly executed. Replaced them. The latest runs of all models are flawless runners, but are fairly light so I MU them.

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• NE

  @nettneo · 1 year ago

  ALL my trains are Great...... all I own is Kato !

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• AC

  @aceadman · 1 year ago (edited)

  There is no question in my mind that Kato locomotives perform the best. The older ones at least. They are not the most detailed, but they’re detailed enough. They are durable, I’ve never broken a handrail on a Kato. But have done so on almost every other locomotive I have. Atlas handrails literally FALL OFF. Unless you want to remove them to paint a locomotive. In that case they are impossible to remove. Kato handrails are perfectly designed and easy to work with. <br><br>Motor technology hasn’t meaningfully changed since 1960. There is no excuse for the INCONSISTENCY and lousy performance of motors now. Katos are great. NOBODY else is close. I’ve consisted katos that are decades apart in age and runtime, and they are immediately, perfectly speed matched. It’s actually somewhat miraculous and spooky. <br><br>Unfortunately, Kato’s newer mechanisms with a “drive bar” built into the TRUCKS, is a terrible redesign. And every newer loco that has it, is essentially doomed to perform terribly at some point. I’m not even sure why. But they “hop” like there is something in the gears (which there might be). But the older design never has a problem. Huge mistake there by them. <br><br>ALL the other manufacturers are hit or miss.<br><br>I’ve had great Walthers/lifelike luck with the dcc friendly newer releases.<br><br>Terrible luck with BLI. Very iffy with scale trains, fox valley is ok, intermountain have been universally AWFUL. So many different problems with different locomotives. <br><br>Atlas, by virtue of their RANGE is amazing. But their locomotives are very, very inconsistent. Some have been great. Others TERRIBLE. Even consecutive numbers in the SAME RUN. &nbsp;<br><br>I paid big dough for two MP15s that were such crap I’m still blown away that they would sell them. The damage to their brand for me is irrecoverable.<br><br>As far as customer service goes, I can’t even bother anymore. If you have a company that is producing crappy stuff, and KNOW that it’s crappy (which they do), and are selling it at high prices. I don’t want to hear you apologize. Or worse yet, BLAME ME for the problem. <br><br>To me there are a few important things in locomotives. PERFORMANCE is first. Don’t put a dime into detail until your locomotives run like Swiss watches. ALWAYS!<br><br>Spare parts is next. Detail parts are small, break easily, and ruin a locomotive when they break. MAKE EXTRA PARTS AND STOCK THEM ALL. If I can’t get a horn or a plow or a handrail, it’s gonna make me angry. &nbsp;<br><br>Better yet, put extras IN THE BOX.<br>Kato has been out of stock on NUMBER PLATES for years now. Come on man!<br><br>You can’t really even buy a replacement motor from atlas anymore. Unforgivable.<br><br>For crying out loud: go to a “pinned” plug in dcc decoder system. Light board with a socket (non proprietary) and a speaker on it. Plug decoder into socket. Done. What am I missing?<br><br>A million other things… but that’s enough for now… 🙄😊👍👍

  17

• NS

  @Nscalestuff · 1 year ago (edited)

  My most troublesome locomotives are 2 atlas sd50&apos;s from the early 2000s. &nbsp;I ended up taking the gears out of the trucks and putting them in between a pair of Kato 90macs as dummies, and made an awesome looking 4 unit mid train pusher consist. &nbsp;I have half a dozen BLI motors, and they are very picky. &nbsp;A slight speck of dirt and they stop. &nbsp;I have two Athearn motors, an sd70, and sd75 from the original run, and they seem to bog down in left hand turns. &nbsp;I have only 2 ST locomotives and have never taken them out of the package yet. &nbsp;I have never had any issue with any Kato locomotive

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• NS

  @NSCALIEN · 4 months ago

  Love my Kato , Con Cor , Bachmann , Hallmark , Lifelike , Arnold , Mechano .<br>I like the wierd stuff and enjoy pulling them apart to see the genius of how the mechanisms are designed.

  1

• FL

  @flsts52 · 1 year ago

  Great video. &nbsp;An interesting note, a few of my best looking and performing steam locos are the Athearn challenger and bigboys (10 to 12 years old).

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• CW

  @Cwj108 · 1 year ago

  Your viewpoints are refreshing. Thanks for the helpful videos and great content!

  3

• WI

  @wilzdart · 1 year ago

  Carlo, I do a lot of loco repairs from guys I have met through the train shows. &nbsp; I would bet a lot, not all, are coming from used locos bought at train shows. &nbsp; Yes you will save money but that comes with a double edge issue parts availability. &nbsp; It is like buying a used car. &nbsp; You said some really good things and Bull snot does work well. anyway thanks for sharing!

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• TR

  @Trainguyrom · 6 months ago

  On my little budget shelf layout with 9-11&quot; radius curves laid with used flex track and used turnouts of my fleet of old used locomotives running from used DC power supplies, I found the Bachmann Spectrum locomotive ran well aside from having a split gear (so it was set aside) the old toy-like Bachmanns were set aside for running poorly, but the best runners are the 2 Life-likes (particularly a Life Like SW7 which runs wonderfully) and my runners up are the Kato SD7 and Atlas GP7. All are 20+ years old and took some time running in circles to fully stretch their wheels after sitting in a box for at least a decade

  1