Hello Everyone:

I have seen a lot of people purchase HO scale rolling stock and engines, some with satisfaction and some with disappointment.

So I decided to post my general rule of thumb to kinda help people out in their purchases of HO scale trains.

The first things to consider, are you a collector or someone who wants to operate a train layout.

Then the next factor are you a beginner or have you been doing this for a while.

Most of the people who have been into HO scale trains for a while have a general idea of what they want to purchase, but then there is a lot of people out there who don't have a clue and need advice.

first off starter type trains, ok this stuff is basically for kids or beginners, such as life like, tyco and some bachmann to name a few.

there is some drawbacks to starter sets, the main factor is reliablility, see most starter sets are basically designed to get someone into trains without the high cost and a lot of them do not last long or the bad part is the fact of replacement parts is hard to find.

now most of the newer bachmann stuff is great for beginners and for people who have been in trains for a while, bachmann has improved a lot of their trains for the better, as for life like most of the stuff is still ok to start with, if you want something reliable you would have to go with proto 1000 starter sets by walthers / life like.

then you have Athearn, they make starter train sets and in my opion it is a great deal for the price.

the other factor is the train tracks, most of these starter sets now have tracks that snap together but there is some factors to take into consideration also.

the track with the black roadbed is steel alloy both bachmann and life like have this track, bachmann is e-z track while Life Like is powerlock.

then you have the track with the grey roadbed which is nickel silver, both Bachmann and Life like make this track.

here's the details on the track, Steel alloy is good for temporary train layouts for the kids or for an indoors one that is in a climate controlled area, steel alloy track has a tendancy to corrode and rust.

Nickel silver is the best way to go if you are just starting out and you want to build a layout, the track has better conductivity and it is easy to clean.

Bachmann E-Z track is in my opinion a lot better than Life Like Power Loc, bachmann's nickel silver easy track has black railroad ties, the Life Like nickel silver Power Loc track has grey railroad ties and it looks cheesey.

All of the track mentioned above is Code 100, this is the height of the rail, code 100 is the standard with most trainsets.

Now there is another type of snap track with a roadbed called True Track by Atlas, this is code 83 and the rails are shorter than code 100 track in height.

There is a lot of companies out there that makes train tracks with roadbed, but the most common and affordable ones have been mentioned above, you do have companies such as Rocco, Marklin and Kato to name a few companies who are producing it as well.

Here's the most common question I have heard, can I run old tyco train cars with modern knuckle couplers?, yes you can Kadee couplers makes a drop in coupler that uses the stock truck on the cars, I do however recommend replacing the wheels with metal ones, the plastic wheels have a tendancy to derail on switches sometimes.

Now comes the next part Old trains Vs. New Trains

A lot of people like to buy older trains because sometime you can get them cheap, but a lot of them complain about a few small things, below is a list of advice concerning these complaints.

Mantua and Tyco Diecast steam engines, the main complaint I hear from people is the motors, ok first thing you have to realize is the fact these engines came out in the 50's and 60's originally and the technology for that time is not high tech as today's trains, but there is places on the internet that sell parts and repowering kits for these locomotives so you can update them in most cases to a can motor and a flywheel.

Rivarossi / AHM steam engines prior to 1988 has the common complaint of the deep flanges on the wheels, it is recommended that you should use code 100 track so the flanges don't hit the switches or the railroad ties, there isn't too many solutions to this problem, the only solution is replacing the wheels or having the flanges machined to the proper size by a repair person,

Rivarossi has this problem on almost all of their products prior to 1988, freight cars and passenger cars are easy to fix, just replace the wheels, where the locomotives both diesel and steam have previous option I mentioned.

Rivarossi is great stuff but the parts for the older locos is getting harder to find, the motors on rivarossi locomotives are not easy to find so you will have to do a conversion in order to do a replacement, and then there's the older steam engines with the driveshaft from the tender to the engine, the driveshaft is very hard to find.

Tyco and Mantua diesels, I have a soft spot for them from my childhood, but let's face it these engines are not meant for layout use nowadays unless you have spare parts such as armatures, bushings, gears, springs and such, the plastic parts on the motors of these locos have a tendancy to break or crack after years of use, newer mantua diesels use can motors, but the older mantua and tyco locomotives have their motors built into the trucks, very hard to find parts for.

Bachmann trains pre 1990, you have to be careful when purchasing older bachmann trains most of them at the time were really toys even their stam locomotives, the diesels had the motors built into the trucks and they are very hard to find parts for, but the worst part was the steam engines with the pancake motors, the motors had a tendancy to melt or burn out, then there's the messed up drive wheels on the steam engine, bachmann used a crappy plastic sleeve between the wheels and they usually became worn where the wheels would pop off or the sleeves would break and crack, the only solution for this was send it back to bachmann for a replacement, or get a repowering kit from Bowser, the bowser kit is the way to go because it has better drive wheels and a better motor.

See most of the train sets pre 2000 were considered toys in most cases and the companies who manufactured them made them toy like, but the newer stuff by Bachmann Spectrum or Life Like Proto 2000 and Proto 1000 is great.

but back to the old stuff,

when buying Diecast trains you need to use a certain degree of caution also, a lot of the older diecast trains have a problem of rotting and corrosion, this is due to the chemicals the were used in the process at the time and due to age it shows., if you see alot of fading and white spots on a black diecast steam engine use a degree of caution when buying it because it might be rotting.

Bowser / Pennline trains are easy to get parts for, Bowser makes parts for both Pennline and Bowser trains and they still make motors for their engines, but there is better repowering kits available from other places online, see boswer still relies on the old open fram pittman style motors rather than an enclosed can motor,

Varney is an old company which was American Flyer, it is very hard to find parts for their engines, but their freight cars are currently being made by Life Like, so you can take parts from one to fix and old one.

Now if you want to build a permanent layout, I recommend Nickel silver or Brass track, Nickel silver is my top recommendation because brass tarnishes faster so you have to clean it more often.

I recommend picking up a few books prior to building a layout, see if you build the standard 4 x 8 layout and you want the outer oval to go close to the edges of the table, you will have to use 22 inch radius curves, and the inside oval will use 18 inch radius track so you can run two trains at the same time, or go to atlas trains website and download their RTS program for the pc, it helps you design train layouts.

Also when purchasing steam engines, diesels and rolling stock or passenger cars you have to take in effect the size of the layout and the radius of the curves.

See most train sets come with 18 inch radius curves, so if you use them on your layout, you will have to make sure the engines you buy will run on it.

Most of the IHC / Mehano Steam engines will run on 18 inch and larger, but most of the bigger Bachmann Spectrum steam engines recommend 22 inch or larger radius curves.

I do not recommend 15 inch radius curves on a layout unless you plan on running small switch engines or old west type stuff or maybe a logging train.

all of this information was posted out of kindness, if you have any questions drop me a line and I will be glad to help.

Model railroading is a hobby and hobbies are meant to be shared and enjoyed with others.

Take care ^_^