Affordable HO scale steam engine comparison! 

The IHC mogul has got to be the best bang for your buck. Good detail and a great mechanism along with nice customizability.

If anyone out there takes a liking to these old analog control engines, be careful as to what track you obtain..The flanges are the earlier very deep kind which, when designed, ran on (tall) code 100 rail..If you obtain code 83 or lower rail the flanges on these might very well collide with the simulated spike heads in the track and cause engine to bounce along on them.. IE. With these early engines you usually have to go with code 100 rail (usually, but not always).. Most engines and cars made today have low, more realistic wheel flanges with will run fine on lower code 83, and even code 70 and code 40 rail...

Another possible idea would be that Oriental Limited in the late 80s early 90s made a series of locos under the “Powerhouse “ line these were locos with white metal boilers and frames but brass detail and running gear like you would have found in an imported brass loco so can motors good gearing and such. They were meant as entry level locos but of a quality way above most plastic locos of that time. These locos had many of the USRA designed steam locos including one articulated loco and sold for about $120-$180 new. Their value now is on a par with plastic models since the series never really caught on and sold well. If you see one at a train show that’s not beat up it could be a great deal with the upscale drive train theybhad

Apparently if a steamer runs better backwards that forwards is due to wear on the bearings. I bought a rivarossi for $5 with rusted side rode the guy said it was trash and would never run again, got it home tested it and it started. Rivarossi for the win. I will always buy a cheap rivarossi, they had great detail for the time

The Lifelike 2-6-0 looks like a model of a german Br-24 exept in an american style.

What you say is true - not everyone has the budget for a more expensive model. However, when you consider how much your time is worth, and add up how many hours you spend on making a silk purse from a sow's ear, maybe that expensive engine that looks great and runs like a swiss watch straight out of the box isn't so expensive after all. I like to tinker - I enjoy turning a train set toy into a well running, detailed custom model - but not everyone does. This is why I enjoy your channel.

Very nice comparison! Rivarossi is without a doubt my favorite make of steamers, simply due to the detail, performance, and variety at the price point they come in at. Most of my steam roster is Rivarossi, and while sometimes they can be finiky, when worked out like you said, they are absolutely excellent engines. Look forward to the next upload!

playart was the original maker of the german engine, also sold under the name of charmerz, they had a line of roadbed track similar to unitrack, and was better than EZ track and power loc

Like this video. Very informative. I know what you Mean with Rivarossi Quality. Some not good and others great. I pick up a Riv 0-4-0 with full valve gear at a train show and it ran good. After adding tender power pick up trucks and some weight is really good. Even milled the flanges down for code 83 track. Also added crew, but they had to have major surgery to fit , but they survived

Oh the runs backward better than forward phenomenon. Those motors have insulating spacer washers on the shaft to keep the commutators centered in the magnetic field without being tightly bound. Years of running and age causes the spacer washers to wear, compress and sometimes just crumble. This usually happens to the one under strain for forward motion. Ta da.

The old metal locomotive that were assembled from kits generally had good Motors. They may not have the fine detail of a plastic locomotive but the die-cast fast of the shell gives them much greater pulling power as simply being all metal instead of plastic is more realistic whoever heard of a plastic steam locomotive? You know what I mean. Those old steam locomotives also were built to last forever. I have a road test in Model Railroader from 1947 with a Mantua Mikado steam locomotive kit not only are extra bearings included with the kit so if you wore any of them out you could replace them but the fact that they have bearings on every moving surface shows the level of quality that they had. After World War with the tripling of prices after the war everybody started to look for ways to cheapen things and unfortunately that was not the way to go. You had to have real skills to be a Model Railroader in the old days. You have to put everything together yourself just about. Lots of guys with scratch build buildings to match certain scenes with buildings that were not available commercially and many isn't it better work than the buildings available to them to buy. Some guys actually made a living scratch building buildings for other people's layout because the owner did not have the type of skill to do it. I can understand that not all of us are scratch builders. I admire those who are and the few that are still left.

The Prototype of the 260 Tank Engine is clearly German. Since my two engines were wired backwards I have one of them on a piece of track coming out of a tunnel with a German train station.

I had a couple of those 260 steam tank engines and they were wired backwards to where you could not run them on the same track with other engines cuz they were go backwards both of them I had were like that.

I have a tyco-mantua 0-6-0 and its pretty good. I got it as part of a set from a friend of my parents

Really nice collection of locomotives those ones I think I have one or two of them

I got a 4-8-2 from IHC and it works great. 👍

The Mehano moguls in their two boiler offerings (camel or std) and their late century American with the std Mogul boiler are, without question, the best running RTR DC models under $100. They went for about $50 new in 1995. They are so consistently built they can be double or triple headed with just a good DC pack running them at scale speeds. Lock two together and they can pull a lot of cars realistically up grades.

Love The 2-4-0 Bowker.

The plastic 0-6-0 is the Alco D-30 style boiler used on later version models.

For the first model you demonstrated, you said it runs smoothly going backwards and you can't figure out why, I have an idea on how you may fix it. If at all possible flip the gears around. The teeth may have a slight lip on them causing it to run rough going forwards but not backwards

That Tyco steamer has to be one of the more critisized locomotives of the actual four. Yes, although the motors were bad, the only thing you had to do was lubricate it when it had a case of the squeaks.

Awesome little engines!

Hey Darth, I was wondering if you had any tips for someone wanting to find a replacement gear for that life-like/play art engine? I’m a big playart fan (despite the cheapness) and I just managed to get one of those weird 2-6-0s but mine has the same gear issue and I’m not sure how’d I’d search for a replacement online. Thanks for reading :)

Love the Bowker 2-6-0.specially in Red.

Great showcase! I'd say the IHC Mogul is the best loco all round. I've got quite a few of the old Rivarossi engines, and while the paint is simplistic and the mechanisms are a bit underpowered, they really can be made into some very good looking locos. The Bowkers are particularly charming! That strange little German-ish loco at the beginning, I recall getting a similar one just to gut the big can motor and stick it into something else. As cool as the new release high end stuff is, these HO classics aren't to be sniffed at, thanks for doing them justice!

I have 2 of those rivarossi 2-4-0, V & T Bowkers,I also have the 4-4-O.the one you have is the best,with the motor in the tender,all of my rivarossi's run like clockwork........

The First loco you showed is not the greatest. gears crack, not great quality, Decent motors, And The wheels are most of the time not quartered right

The märkin one was actually a good model, it even had valve gear

My rate would be 1ihc 2rivarossi 3 tyco 4 playart

Ho N O Lion Amc Flyer Marx 3 Old Train

Just wondering. Does the 2-4-0 have pickups both on the tender and driving wheels or just the tender itself?

I genuinely feel like the life like/model power 2-6-0 is just a German tank engine that they just coupled a slope back tender to

They don't run on steam power though?

Do they make Dummy/Non-Powered Steam Locomotives? A powered diesel pulling a dummy Steam Locomotive !

That lifelike model is cursed beyond belief. A German steam locomotive shell paired with a North American tender and lettered for the PRR.

I am so glad you did this lecture ... I have a tendency to like Mantua/tyco I think only because it goes back to younger days...Although having less detail , I love the big heavy Mikado as well as the the 6 big wheel loco. I just wish they had fly wheels, but thats another thing...Hope some day you might do one of those big heavy mantua locos.... I think they have an open motor .... are the open motors reliable ?

great video

Every time you slide those engines it damages the gears and/or wheel set………… The Bowker was made by Pocher……

2-4-0 is actually made by poacher (rivarossi copy)

The life like engine is german

Out of All of Those Engines Which one can Pull the Most?

Whats the cheaping hi scale train

What was the magnet you put in the tyco 0-6-0 ? The mantua loco.