Proto 2000


Maxitrains

Maxitrains

Member
I was taking a look on e-bay and found many engines Proto 2000 Series. Is this the brand , or a series of locos from multiple brands?

So many things on e-bay, but sometimes I get confused, I buy or bid on engines and sometimes you do not know exactly if they are dummies or not. Is there any specific way of knowing, apart of contacting the seller?

Thanks
 
Proto 2000 should almost always be a Powered unit. If you get a dummy, then you;ve gotten ripped off.
 
I have 3 Proto 2000 S3 units and can tell you they are really nice quiet running units that seem to have plenty of power. Detailing is very good. If you need a good reference I would strongly suggest getting a Walthers reference guide.I buy everything off of Ebay and this is probably the best guide I've come across to tell me what the retail prices are are for descriptions of the products.They are about 1000 pages and list 10's of 1000's of products. One of the only big brand names I've noticed they don't carry is Athern. Ron
 
Note that if you are interested in any steam at all, the Proto 2000 (we shorten this to P2K) Heritage Series of steam engines are peerless in terms of smoothness of running and appearance due to a high degree of detailing. This is for the locos that are not high end brass, since the Heritage series is plastic.

To be perfectly honest though, many owners, while otherwise very pleased with these locos, find that they are light pullers. I don't recall all the details, but the smaller 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 used to get complaints, mostly because folks felt they should be able to shove strings of 10-15 cars in their yards. That may be optimistic on poorly laid track, but I can shove a string of 4 heavyweight passenger cars with my tiny Heritage 0-6-0. I would guess that their larger super-steam 2-10-2 and 2-6-6-2, for example, do reasonably well, but I am not certain.

I have two diesels, a P2K FA2/FB2 set and a tiny SW8 switcher. They are both good runners and reasonably well detailed.
 
I also found this, and the package looks good but really donno about the product, even though its a Bachmann

BACHMANN SPECTRUM 82708 HO EMD SD-45 UNION PACIFIC 16
 
Ok, I would like to know everyone's priorities about Brands!!! If everyone can post a list of his top brand choice (of smooth running and reliable engines), followed by 4 more others (anyone can list as much as he likes, with the best on top), we can get a TOP 5 list of the best brands, according to model railroaders (whom did really try these engines for along time :) )
 
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I am a proto fan, but will admit they have issues with a few types of engines.
The SD60/50 model is the best they made, will pull the dirt off the earth.
The GP60's are good too.
The GP38-2's depend on what you get. Some are great, others have small issues with running jerky.
The GP30 and GP9's had cracked axle gear issues, which are easy enough to resolve.

Overall a great brand, but below Atlas.
 
Priorities will vary, but general consensus puts Proto 2000, Kato, Atlas, and Genesis usually on top.

Sometimes you'll see Stewart/Bowser, Tower 55, Broadway Limited, Overland (Brass) mixed between (I say mixed, because some people will rate them up higher, some lower).

Below that would be your Bachmann Spectrums, Athearn Blue Box kits & RTR (I mix those because, well some of the new RTR's are depressing). Sometimes with that level, sometimes lower your have Walthers Trainline.

On the bottom you'll have stuff like the Like Like kits, Tyco (old kits out of production), IHC, Bachmann standard, AHM.

There's plenty more out there, though I can't think of them off the top of my head. As far as my mind goes, you can't really go wrong as long as your stay away from the ones I mentioned in the bottom level, unless you're up to doing a bit of tweaking to make sure they all look and run good.
 
Well there are quite alot of brands that I never heard of. I thought that Roco was one of the best brands ( lately I heard it was bought from another company, donno if its true). Actually the best and smoothest engien I have in my tiny collection, it the Roco.

Diesel.jpg


In the future I will be more careful of what to look for, even though I'm a little restricted on my budget.

A cheap loco with a motor that has a motor not running so smooth, can have the motor replaced with something better, and if yes, where to find such motors for sale?
 
Yes, but converting some of the old Life Like, & Tyco might be touch as they used a motor directly attached to one truck. Bachmann's usually have full interiors (they add all that extra metal for weighting), so changing a motor is interesting there, though possible (just ask Jeffrey).

Roco, hummm, I dunno where they would fit in, anyone else have one to compare them to the others?
 
Well it seems I have to work overtime to find a seller on e-bay that sells these good brands.

I will also have to work out which type of diesel engines to get, but I guess I won;t be worrying much about the age and era of the trains, since the layout is mostly mountainous, and will try to locate the buildings at approx 1950's to 1970's. As you might have seen my layout and plan, its mostly mountains, tunnels and bridges, very little space for houses.

I only need to find some american type old buildings like grocers, barber shops, and other small buildings that I can scrounge in the little space I have available. Also some mountain buildings, or wood huts. I checked most of the brands ( like Faller) that make buildings, but found very few or none of these.

I donno if I have to get the buildings now ( in the stage of wiring ) or before I start the scenery process.

So much things that has to be in order :S.
 
I was browsing around on e-bay and found a

American Premium Brass Handmade model Importer-Overland Models Inc.

Proudly present you their DIAMOND series collection:

HO 1:87 Full Power and Super Detail 3-unit gas turbine Messingmodell

8500HP Union Pacific 3Unit Gas Turbine HO Messing Brass



Which costs US $ 2,570 , is this real or there is some kind of misprint?
 
Maxitrains said:
I was browsing around on e-bay and found a

American Premium Brass Handmade model Importer-Overland Models Inc.
Proudly present you their DIAMOND series collection:
HO 1:87 Full Power and Super Detail 3-unit gas turbine Messingmodell 8500HP Union Pacific 3Unit Gas Turbine HO Messing Brass

Which costs US $ 2,570 , is this real or there is some kind of misprint?
Click to expand...

Oh, it's definitely real! Those brass gas turbines are highly coveted.
 
I have one of those in B&O (an SD7 actually). Great running engine, but you may need to replace the worm gears in it. P2K models manufactured during that period had trouble with the worm gears cracking.

If that's for sale on eBay, you might want to contact the seller and ask him if he already replaced the worm gears.
 
Walther's would have them, if you needed them. Every time I've spoken with "Keith" in their Customer Service dept., he was always very courteous and helped me solve some minor issues with my P2K GP38-2 and SD50.

Actually, the one guy who did report problems with his SD9 said it was the axel gears, NOT the worm gears, that cracked. He contacted LifeLike (who still owned P2K at the time) and they promptly sent him replacement gears, free-of-charge.
 
Chemical deterioration. LifeLike once used a process where the gears were molded in separate halves, bonded together in the middle. Over time the bond would weaken, sometimes causing the two halves to split. That faulty manufacturing process has been improved but their prices have also gone up accordingly.
 
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