I know about the DCC operations, but lets say I The manufacturers I've strayed away from the Tyco side myself and have a good assortment of Bachman, Rivarossi, Roundhouse, etc... just because of the looks. I wasn't too sure on the operation aspect, so thanks there I'll take a look at a side by side comparatives.
The differences from one brand to the next will become more apparent once you start operating them. Simply too much to go into it here in a simple reply. Tyco has been out of the model train business for a long time; their stuff from the 1960s has some collector appeal and it's durable if crude - but the locos still suffer from very stiff running, poor pickup, etc. Tyco became a subsidiary of a food company in the 1970s, and they seemed to use the train stuff as a loss leader to advertise their other products. Pretty much junk after that.
Rivarossi unlike Tyco has gone out of businesses and risen from the ashes more times than I can count, or rather its U.S. importers have been a merry go round of several different business names for the same guy, several different guys for the same business, and so on. Rivarossi tanked again a few years ago and has now been taken over by Hornby who is beginning to re-issue the stuff yet again. Some of it has been improved, a little or a lot depending on the product. When AHM was the importer in the 1960s and passenger cars were $1.49 and the Big Boy was $13.95, IMO that's the last time the stuff was priced for what it was worth... and back then my dad refused to buy the Rivarossi steam locos because they were "cheap junk".
You didn't indicate a preference for steam, diesel, or what railroads or eras you are interested in... possibly all, and there are more than a few of us who have that dilemma as well. But which manufacturers are recognized as poor-fair-average-good-excellent depends on which type of product you're talking about. The dominant manufacturers of steam locos are not necessarily the dominant manufacturers of diesels, and so on.
Bachmann has several tiers of product, but IMO even their top tier falls below most of the others in terms of total quality. They do better at steam than diesels, but they've laid more than a few eggs there too. Best Bachmann products seem to be the Shays. Worst - pretty much any diesel, especially in their base "toy" line.
Atlas probably has the highest average quality, by virtue of the fact that even their low-priced "Trainman" line is fairly new tooling.
Athearn is one of the oldest and largest HO scale manufacturers and their product line is extensive and covers over 50 years of evolution, mergers and acquisitions. Almost impossible to give them an overall rating, because it varies product by product and sometimes run by run.
Walthers is also a large and deep operation that has absorbed many other product lines over the years, most recently Life-Like and the Proto 2000 line. Proto 2000 is coming up on its 20th birthday and the newest releases from Walthers under the P2K name are about the best to date - Walthers has fixed many past issues with the P2K line in terms of drive line reliability and other things.
Kato has been highly regarded since they first came on the scene in 1984, manufacturing products for Atlas and others before importing to the U.S. under their own name. Their drive line is the best in the industry, but lately they have fallen behind in detail refinement and accuracy - as well as mystifying modifications to their proven drive line that leave me scratching my head. They have been successful in the USA/Canada market but their main emphasis as a corporation is Japan and Europe, so I don't expect to see them try and stay neck and neck with the others in the U.S. market. But I'll still use their drives anywhere I can.
Could go on all day I suppose, but the short answer is "it depends".
Andy
