The one's I have, (Rio Grande and UP F3's) perform quite a bit like Athearn RTR engines. The detailing is about the same as Athearn blue box, and altho I've never had mine apart, a friend told me the drive train is a Athearn clone in fact he said he replaced the gears in the trucks with Athearn parts as a couple of those were split and making noise. I also have the FM Erie builts in UP but I haven't run them as of yet. I'd say they are OK for the price, you can always add detail later if that appeals to you. 2slim
I've got a few of the RS11 locos that they did a couple of years ago and the detailing on them is extensive. Grab irons, MU hoses, door latches on the access doors to the engine compartments, etc. all out of the box. Can't speak to the remainder of the Proto 1000 line but the RS11 models have plenty of detail. As far as operations I'd agree with 2slim about like an newer Athearn RTR engine maybe a little bit better. I enjoy my models just have to be carefully because the detailing is very fragile.
Have 5 of them at the present time and they are all good runners. An important matter to me is that they m.u. right along with the Genesis, Atlas, InterMountain, Kato, and P2K diesels. And, as Arrow pointed out, the RS-11 is detailed on a level equal to the P2K line.
I plan on getting a couple of the RS11's have seen a few about at shows and they seem to run exery bit as good as my P2K locos.
