Opinions on the best scale for the beginner?

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MichiganMan said:
... I'm a complete blank slate on HO stuff, who are the main players for rolling stock, locomotion, etc? Which ones are good, which middling, and who to avoid.
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My personal preferances only (YMMV):

Top tier: Atlas, Kato, Proto2000, Athearn Genesis

Middle Tier: Athearn RTR [recent vintage], Atlas TrainMan, Broadway Limited (BLI); Bachmann Silver series freight cars only

Lower tier, but upgradable: Athearn Bluebox, recent Bachmann

Avoid like the Plague: Tyco, Life-Like (non-P2K), early* Bachmann

* anything produced more than 3-4 years ago
 
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CSX_road_slug said:
Avoid like the Plague: Tyco, Life-Like (non-P2K), early* Bachmann

* anything produced more than 3-4 years ago
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why?? he is getting it for the kid. and when the kid is going to launch a loco of the table it will not matter if it is 25$ worth BB or 10$ tyco - at that point its pile of damage anyways. then again my tyco F7 runs ok even after nephew tested if it flys by a chance as well.
 
CSX_road_slug said:
My personal preferances only (YMMV):

Top tier: Atlas, Kato, Proto2000, Athearn Genesis

Middle Tier: Athearn RTR [recent vintage], Atlas TrainMan, Broadway Limited (BLI); Bachmann Silver series freight cars only

Lower tier, but upgradable: Athearn Bluebox, recent Bachmann

Avoid like the Plague: Tyco, Life-Like (non-P2K), early* Bachmann

* anything produced more than 3-4 years ago
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I have to disagree with Athearn RTR being middle tier. Their junk is fine for a kid but I wouldn't recommend it for a serious modeler.

I recently bought and then sold two of their newer "upgraded" locos. The noses were wrong, the sills were wrong, the paint wasn't even close, the road numbers were 2 scale inches off, the cab vents were in the wrong place, the horns were wrong, and they run horrible.

I'd have no problem given an Athearn to a kid and letting them tear it up but I wouldn't spend a dime on one for yourself. There will probably be fifty posts following this with guys ready to put my head in a noose for knocking Athearn but for the money, get a P2K or an Atlas.

Now, to Athearns credit, some of their newer freight cars are spot on. They have done a great job at prototypical accuracy and I field several of their cars in my fleet. Be careful of Intermountain though. They do very little if any research and will throw any paint job that will sell on any car.

Jacob
 


If it's for a little kid, I'd say Lionel 3-rail is the way to go. At least the ones I remember having as a young 'un were reliable performers and very durable.

I tried getting my kid a Life-Like train set for Christmas back in my early days in the hobby, before I was completely familiar with the different brands. Had all kinds of problems with it, he got so disgusted he never regained interest in the hobby. I wish I would've gotten him some Athearn blue box instead, I still kick myself over that.
 
i'm still pushing for N think about this pic, same type of loco diffrent scale's
HO -v- N
Picture039Small.png
:eek:
 
If they are little kids. You should also determine if you want stuff more on the toy side of things or model side. Remember that kids will not understand why they cant touch and physically "play" with the model trains.
 
I have to say I'm really tempted to get the young'n some add'l Lionel stuff to "play" with and start working up plans for a HO layout for me. We shall see..
 
Well heres my 2 cents worth for what its worth . I prefer HO and so does my 13 year old and my wife. we can see the locos better and work with the scenery and track better. Looked at getting into N because of the space constraints , bought 2 loco`s off of Ebay and when i got them my wife and i both were like WHOA!! dont think we can deal with it being so small and G or bigger mmmmmm dont have the space or the money for that . But thats just us.
 
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