Looking for a good brand of locomotives to eventually put on my layout. Which are the better brands of HO diesels out there? Needs to be reliable and have good looks.
Strictly diesel era? The first name which comes into my mind is Atlas for their diesels. Then there is long time manufacturer Athearn. Kato is yet another. Moving up in price range, are Scale Trains. I am quite certain there will be many opinions expressed here.
That is a loaded question, akin to asking who makes the best front wheel drive car. What are you looking for in an HO locomotive? Steam? Diesel? What era? Performance? Scale fidelity? I work for Athearn so of course I'm going to be biased but if you are looking for the most scale, most detailed and best performing three top manufacturers come to mind. Athearn Genesis Scale Trains Rivet Counter or Museum Quality Rapido Not into the super detailed but still want moderate detail. Athearn HO Scale Trains Operator Atlas Gold Bowser Some Bachmann For good running performance with basic detail, consider Athearn Roundhouse or Kato. Kato has a great drivetrain, but their scale fidelity is 20 years old. Want a cheap reliable model and not concerned with scale detail? The old Athearn Blue Box available at nearly any train show is the Ford Flathead V8 of model trains and can be had for a song in most cases. We (Athearn) have not made them in close to two decades but the Blue box era has a cult like following. It all depends on what you want as there are as many options for model locomotives as there is anything else.
I’ve got some good Bachman and several Fleischman that I’m happy with. Also Trix, Piko and Marklin. I actually got a tour in the Marklin factory in 2019, most impressive. Rick H
