Re: What is the best brand of engine.

mike wrote:
I'm fairly new at this game, but after buying several locomotives I
have come to the conclusion that my Atlas engines seems to be the
smoothest running, most reliable and more detailed. My Bachman is
mostly junk and I'm always fighting DCC issues with my Athern.

At this point I'm leaning toward the Atlas brand and was wondering if
there are some models of Atlas I should stay away from. Do they have a
premium line and a cheap line?

I buy engines mostly because they catch my eye. I'm not a hard core
modeler like some, I just try to have fun with them.

I would be interested to see the opinions of other people on this
subject.

Thanks
Mike

I rate locomotives on looks and running. Under looks we want nice paint, sharp lettering, nice fine detail, glased windows, headlamps that light, good plastic molding, and road name. And durability, stays looking nice and parts don't fall off when handled.
Under running we want smooth slow speed crawl, quiet operation, lots of tractive effort and good "rail holding" (stays on track and does not derail). And reliability, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Most features you can evaluate for your self looking at the locomotive in the hobby shop and running it on the shop's test track. Durability and reliability are pretty good with every maker, and every maker is very good about repairing or replacing defective units. In short, you can buy pretty much anything that looks good to you and take it home and be happy with it.
In my estimation, Kato and Atlas make the nicest models, followed by Proto2000, Bachmann, Athearn , Bowser and IHC. I'll buy any of them and be satisfied.

David Starr

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: NASA Picks In-Line (Maybe)
    ... > Lockmart's estimate for the failure probability of the Atlas V Heavy is ... Lockmart estimated the safety of one version of the ... including the Atlas V Heavy. ... >>> reliability was in fact one of the program goals. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Man-Rating Atlas V
    ... Estimates of its reliability are also educated ... Atlas has overestimated the reliability by a factor of 2, ... kills the crew 1 in 500 times, and does not meet the NASA spec. ... And the closer you get to a new vehicle, ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Space Access Update #112 9/19/05
    ... giving us a proven reliability rate in that stage of 99.54%. ... If we went with Atlas V, then we'd have to use solid strap-ons to up the performance, and if a single solid is a bad idea on the Stick, then using multiple solids on Atlas V is also a bad idea. ... As for SpaceX and it's Falcon 9....well, once they've got some Falcon 1 flights under their belt they might by taken more seriously in the EELV market. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • What is the best brand of engine.
    ... I'm fairly new at this game, but after buying several locomotives I ... have come to the conclusion that my Atlas engines seems to be the ... smoothest running, ...
    (rec.models.railroad)
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