Locomotive question...

[PatP]

Okay guys, this is my first official posting. Most of my stuff is 30+ years old so, lately I've been buying some new, (getting ready to run RP for the first time, should be here Wed or Thurs). Anyhow, I understand the main manufacturers are Atlas, Kato, Athearn, etc..., with a lot of debate over their quality. I ran across, on eBay, InterMountain Railway and Fox Valley Models. Anyone here run them? What do you think of them?

Thanks

PatP

[KPack]

Welcome Pat!

Nearly all locomotive manufacturers have nice-running locomotives.  I don't have any Intermountain or FVM myself, but I've heard plenty of good things about them.  It's hard to have a bad-running locomotive these days.  An individual locomotive may have issues (manufacturing defect, unbalanced motor, etc), but as a whole most manufacturers do a good job.

Atlas and Kato are kind of the gold standard when it comes to smooth running.  In my opinion, Atlas tends to be better than Kato in that regard.  There are other brands, such as MTH, that are equally good or better.  I'm supremely impressed with the MTH locomotive I have....one of my quietest and smoothest running of my collection.

What really matters is that you get locomotives that fit your modeling goals.  If you're going for a specific prototype, stick with the models that are correct for that.  It'll save you a lot of money in the end.

-Kevin

[PatP]

Thanks. I suspected as much however, I had just bought a new Bachman gp35 which started swapping gear teeth on the rear truck after about 5 minutes out of the box. Probably just luck of the draw. Intermountain's web site indicates they've been around since 2002 and FVM says they've been "building engines for 20 years", but I'd never heard of either until recently. Of course that don't mean much either.

Thanks again.

PatP