# Which engines?



## lilredwuck (Mar 4, 2014)

Ok, so I am getting a little too excited and impulse buying (I know it's bad, but feels so good). I have purchased 2 locomotives off Ebay, not knowing if I am overpaying or in the correct time period. Smart huh, I know. I am thinking of doing a time period of 1980's till now. Unsure exactly what I am going to do. I am doing Union Pacific though. So question is what model locomotive should I be buying that would be correct for the time period? Sorry, but I don't have tons of time for research. That's what the forums are for! I know I should change the couplers to Katee if I remember correctly. Also, I am buying Atlas Locos. Is there another brand I should try?


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## trains galore (Jul 22, 2013)

Hi there
I don't know anything about what particular type of trains you need, but in terms of brands I'd go for bachmann or hornby, most of the ones made in the last few years seem to be good runners, the newer the motors generally the better

Also Kato make a very nice union pacific, so have a look at their stuff!
Also yeah the kadee couplers work good, most new trains have them, older ones have the old kadee type which is different so you would have to convert themhwell:


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## golfermd (Apr 19, 2013)

Some pictures of the eBay buys would be helpful.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Mentioning the scale you model would also be useful.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Mentioning the scale you model would also be useful.


That would be nice to know.:smokin:

Lets see.....I guess HO, no wait a minute make that O, no maybe I will say N?
Can't be G.


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## lilredwuck (Mar 4, 2014)

Sorry about that, I am modeling HO scale. The ebay buys would be

Atlas #8960 GP-38 Diesel Locomotive Union Pacific #1977 DCC 1/87 HO PTD
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331137518963?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

and Atlas #7525 sd-24 Union Pacific RD #400 locomotive
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221381890569?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


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## airshot (Jan 12, 2014)

While I can't speak for HO as I have N scale I did buy upon recommendation an Atlas loco and I am very pleased with it. Much of my stuff is used or traded for and have Bachman and trix locos which run quite well, but the Atlas has been far superior to the others. I got mine from a local train show, the gent had a fairly large display of various makes and recommended the Atlas as the best bang for the buck. As a mid range priced loco the low speed (crawling)performance is far superior to the cheaper locos so in that respect I will say the Atlas locos would be a winner.

Airshot


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## FRED On Board (Jan 2, 2014)

Okay, From the 1980's to 2000 (about 20 years) I watched UP diesels back and forth on the mainline north out of Houston to Spring (to the Lloyd classification yard) and beyond nearly every day.

In that period I saw thousands of consists of UP locos and a number of mixed heralds of roads acquired by UP as a result of corporate merger, most notably in the 1980's and 90's...So, you might consider all of what I saw with respect to ownership in that twenty year period was Union Pacific.

First, I saw a lot of EMD's. The Geeps: 
GP35, 38-2, 40, 40-2, 50 and 60 locos...The SD's, many 40-2, 45, 60, 70MAC, 80MAC and 90MAC locos...Some 40T-2 both repaints and not of Southern Pacific 40T-2 and maybe some former Cotton Belt or other road SD45T-2 locos. 

Second, from GE a considerable number of U-boats: the U30-C and U33-C (the latter, repaints from SP) locos...But with greater frequency as the 1990's clicked by, mostly the newer stuff from GE: C30-7A, the dash 8, dash 9 and then the AC4400 locos in great numbers until I moved within this last year.

As I mentioned, keep in mind that some of these locomotives in the 1980's and after were re-paints (to the familiar UP yellow and gray) of former Class 1 roads now merged with the Union Pacific: Southern Pacific (SP), Cotton Belt (SSW), Denver, Rio Grande and Western (DRGW), Chicago North Western (CNW), Western Pacific (WP), Misouri Pacific (MP), and Misouri Kansas Texas (MKT). 

As recently as two or three years ago, I had still seen the occasional SD40-2 lashed up to the more modern SD's as well as some of the later GP's...I cannot remember which of the switchers I've seen but once in a great while an EMD SW or Alco RS in fresh UP paint alone or in tandem lashed up and being transported behind a modern EMD or GE loco heading south toward Houston or north toward the Lloyd yard and beyond.

And not to forget an occasional sighting of an excursion duty E9A hustling the bright yellow passenger cars north or south on that line in that same twenty years!

That's a reasonable accounting of the prototypical UP locomotive roster from the 1980's onward...Not perfect, not complete but a fair representative of the motive power I was witness to. 

As an HO modeler, I have the following diesels in UP paint: SD40-2, GP40-2, GP50 and SW1500, every one of them a low cost, trouble-free Athearn "blue box" product.

Bruce /FRED On Board
ATSF, BN, SP, UP


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## briangcc (Oct 11, 2012)

Stay away from Bachmann unless its the Spectrum line. The no-frills Bachmann stuff is akin to Tyco - toy quality, not model quality. The Spectrum line included updated drivelines, flywheels, good running and good details. They also had a Bachmann Plus line for a bit and those were good running locos, albeit short on detail.

Same goes for LifeLike - stay away unless its the Proto2000 line. The Proto2000 line used drives just like Athearn. Good quality, good runners, good detail. **Now they're owned Walthers and I haven't seen a unit up close to know if Walthers messed with a good thing or not.

Athearn blue box are good units. Their Genesis line stepped up the detail, features (such as DCC onboard), and updated tooling for the shells. Either are good buys.

Kato are nice locos and have been since they entered the HO market. 

Walthers seems to be hit/miss with their locos...or at least were when they entered the market. Might have changed since then, not sure.

My HO collection is mostly Athearn, Rail Power Products (with Athearn Mechanisms), Hobbytown of Boston, Varney (with Athearn Mechanisms - diesels, my steamers still have original Varney under them), and a couple Proto 2000 steamers.


And since you're modeling UP, you can now toss in a steam engine or two since they have a very active historical collection. If steam's not your thing, they preserved a number of older diesels as well so you can sneak them in too!


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## trains galore (Jul 22, 2013)

Bachmann spectrum is nice, I have one of the trams Also I have an Ivatt 2mt from the bachmann branchline series, it runs beautifully

I bought a couple of newer cheap bachmann diesels and they run really well, but stay away from old bachmann stuff and life like have made some awful stuff, don't bother buying stuff with those plastic wheels, I have them and the number of derailments is ridiculous
They are cheap though and fun to experiment with


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

briangcc said:


> Stay away from Bachmann unless its the Spectrum line. The no-frills Bachmann stuff is akin to Tyco - toy quality, not model quality. The Spectrum line included updated drivelines, flywheels, good running and good details. They also had a Bachmann Plus line for a bit and those were good running locos, albeit short on detail.


I believe most of the modern bachmann locomotives are better than the previous issues (yes, even the "Plus" line and an older spectrum model I have). I have been expanding my HO collection recently with brand new locomotives and have two spectrum locomotives, and two standard line DCC "on board" (one with their "sound value" decoder) locomotives and all run well under conventional DC control. Stay away from some of the cheaper starter set stuff made by them and you shouldn't have a problem. That being said, one of my Spectrum locomotives is their newer 3 truck Climax geared steam locomotive and it has many more detail and metal parts than my standard line DCC Pere Marquette 1225 berkshire, which is also a pretty nice locomotive for the price. You get what you pay for.

I also have a Kato N scale set that is very nice as well as their HO unitrack system which is also great. I've heard nothing but good things about their HO locomotives as well.


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