[spottydog]

If Rolls Royce are the best of cars, how do you rate "N" Gauge Loco's from best to worst?
Is one manufacturer better than another, or one model better than another? You can't always go on price.
I'm particularly interested in ones for my layout which is predominently shunting.
Your experiences and unbiased views would be appreciated.

Cheers Spottydog

 

[Chinahand]

Hi Spottydog.

I can only comment on GWR locos but here goes anyway.

Personally I can't discern very much difference between the GF and Dapol Pannier tank locos when it comes to 0-6-0s. Mine all seem to run very smoothly at slow speeds under DCC control.

I also have 4 No. 2-6-2 Prairies, 2 GF & 2 Dapol. On balance I think the Dapols are slightly better.

Having heard mixed reports of the Peco Collett I was almost afraid to put it on the track but so far I have found no problems. I will, nevertheless be adding some weight to the tender to increase its traction/pulling power.

The only larger locos I have at the moment are the GF King and Castle. Both run well enough though the front bogie looks b***** awful. I have some replacement bogies on order from NBrass which will dramtically improve their appearance.

The ones I'm really waiting to get my hands on are the new Ixion Manors (I have 2 on order). The spec is very impressive and the level of detail looks to be excellent. I'm hoping these will be the equivalent of Rolls Royces but as someone cocked up at Ixion (they ended up the wrong scale) they are presently being re-tooled.

Hope this helps.

 

[db ice 3]

QUOTE (spottydog @ 22 Feb 2009, 05:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If Rolls Royce are the best of cars, how do you rate "N" Gauge Loco's from best to worst?
Is one manufacturer better than another, or one model better than another? You can't always go on price.
I'm particularly interested in ones for my layout which is predominently shunting.
Your experiences and unbiased views would be appreciated.

Cheers Spottydog

hi there, a friend of mine has the older BR blue farish 0-6-0 08 shunter and its always been a terrible runner. it wont run slowly over points at all without stalling. sometimes it even stalls on straight track!.

i have all german stock and even my miniscule 0-4-0 fleischmann shunter is good on points altho it does stall occasionally but its so much better than the gf model which has 6 wheels rather than 4.

to me a "rolls royce" of a loco is how slowly and smoothly and quietly it runs and also that it doesnt stall on complex pointwork!. the latest farish (china made) seem to be better with all wheel pick-up which is vital for smooth slow speed running. there is no excuse for every single wheel not picking up current these days.

im also on the lookout for a strong pulling power n gauge loco of any make and outline to pull a track cleaning train - comprising of a tomix cleaning car, a cmx brass (heavy) tanker holding cleaning fluid with cleaning pads and a roco friction pad van all hooked together ... ill prob need 2 co-co locos with all wheel drive to haul that lot around to clean my rails! - any ideas folks wud be gratefully received!

 

[upnick]

QUOTE (db ice 3 @ 23 Feb 2009, 16:25) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hi there, a friend of mine has the older BR blue farish 0-6-0 08 shunter and its always been a terrible runner. it wont run slowly over points at all without stalling. sometimes it even stalls on straight track!.

i have all german stock and even my miniscule 0-4-0 fleischmann shunter is good on points altho it does stall occasionally but its so much better than the gf model which has 6 wheels rather than 4.

to me a "rolls royce" of a loco is how slowly and smoothly and quietly it runs and also that it doesnt stall on complex pointwork!. the latest farish (china made) seem to be better with all wheel pick-up which is vital for smooth slow speed running. there is no excuse for every single wheel not picking up current these days.

im also on the lookout for a strong pulling power n gauge loco of any make and outline to pull a track cleaning train - comprising of a tomix cleaning car, a cmx brass (heavy) tanker holding cleaning fluid with cleaning pads and a roco friction pad van all hooked together ... ill prob need 2 co-co locos with all wheel drive to haul that lot around to clean my rails! - any ideas folks wud be gratefully received!

Hi DB,

If your friends 08 shunter is N gauge remove the base plate and bend the contacts out giving them a gentle clean with a fibreglass brush while you can get at them the same on the inside of the wheels flanges reassemble and try it ..... the screw with the nut holding the wire to the chassis can be a little loose and very gradual tightening of it can solve slow running problems ... not to tight though as it can restrict the comm.
With your cleaning train go for an American loco from life like they have plenty of weight and traction to pull my CMX cleaner / Tomix cleaner with plenty of pull spare even up gradients.

They may not fit in with your layout but do the job at a fraction of the cost of two co-cos ........ here is Life Likes EMD E8 which with a bit of trimming of the weights will take a class 37 body and has all wheel drive and usually sell for about £25 - £30 on ebay new.

http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/lle678.html

 

[db ice 3]

hi upnick ... thanks loads for thr info advice - much appreciated! - ill print off the advice re my pals shunter and we'll take a look at it!. am sure its not supposed to run the way it does at all!.

also thx for the advice on the u.s. locos, wow they seem v cheap compared to european locos and have a great tech spec! ... for a track cleaning train i really dont mind what the loco looks like as long as it can pull the cleaning wagons!

thanks again!

 

[upnick]

Your welcome DB

if you cant find an american loco let me know have a few spare

 

[Grahame]

Personally I'd be very wary about "rating" locos in performance terms, either by manufacturer - as products can vary significantly within a range - or even by individual product, such as a particular loco, as it seems that there can be plenty of dogs of one type of loco around yet also be plenty of them that run more than acceptably well. However, if you're talking about details, fidelity and livery application then that's a different matter.

With regards to how well they run, the best thing is to have the model test run and check them over personally before buyng and only accept what you are happy with, or if you end up with a lemon to return it immediatelly.

G.

 

[egg and chips]

One make not mentioned is Union Mills , who make a number of LMS & LNER tender Locos in N Gauge , bought one a few months ago and pleased with it , a 3F , they also do 2p, 4F, G2 etc
Motor in tender and are known to have good haulage , nice models for aound £70

 

[gwrgwr]

well my layout is steam diesel 50/60s western region branch and my plan was to buy good secondhand or mint barely used seconhand .and to be fair its all good but the the best performer is ths dapol autotank for me,and the bachmann/farishrailcar w22w what a runner .
not a big layout but it lokks and runs sweet mind you it is one of only three locomotives bought new.

 

[spottydog]

Well it seems that you all have differing opinions of which is best. From reading these posts Dapol is scoring best for slow running/shunting. I don't know how we got onto the subject of track cleaning, my how we digress !

Cheers
Spottydog

 

[6991]

Without doubt for me, best N-gauge loco ever is the Fleischmann 64 class. This came out around 2000/2001 and I was amazed with every facet. Undoubtedly the best development up until then. They may have done better, but I swapped to H0 in 2002. Prior to that some of the Roco diesels are good. The V200 I bought in 1987 still runs like a charm fast and slow (you can pick this up for ~ 45Euro new at some internet shops). The only disappointment bigtime was the Arnold 93 class, conked out after the proverbial 5 minutes and was dog terminal - looks good on the rusty siding at the back of an Epoche III shed though. Minitrix locos are OK but the small locos (V36 metal body, V60) can sound like coffee grinders. Biggest surprise was the Arnold Kof II, how could something so small (a) not stall on points (

pull 10 wagons. Even Fleischmann locos (38, 78) from late 70's and 80's still run good and still look the business.
6991

 

[db ice 3]

have to agree with 6691 ... that the fleischmann n gauge locos do seem to be very good at slow running and over complex pointwork. the electric locos (bo-bo) have all wheel pick up and flywheels so seem to be smooth over areas where its possible to lose electrical contact like points and crossings.

a friend of mine has a graham farish 0-6-0 cls08 diesel shunter and its a terrible runner but his class 90 and 47 locos from farish seem to be great runners - his 47 has such slow running that u dont know its moving apart from coming back after about 10 mins to find its not longer in a siding!. - amazing. and it has 12 wheels pickup and all wheel drive so that all helps!.

my little fleischmann 0-4-0 Glasskasten loco (about the size of the end of my thumb!) with built-in dcc decoder is an amazing runner and is good over points - doesnt seem to be any hard and fast rules of whats gonna be a good and bad runner - all seems a bit random - but more wheels/pickups and flywheels all seem to contribute to good running qualities!