Andrew, that’s why one has to do research to try and find out what scale something is, and try and get input from others who have purchased what you are interested in buying. That’s when sites like this are invaluable.
Devon Sinsley said:
Wendell,
Did I misunderstand your post with regard to new locomotive offerings? Because there more than just Piko and LGB (when and if it returns). We have Bachmann and USA trains. Both making locos and cars; Accucraft as well. Maybe I misunderstood but there are players in the market. I have no dog in this fight. But a standard, whatever that is, would be nice. Getting them to do it, thats a different story.
Sir, your comment above about LGB seems to me grossly out of date. My local LGB dealer here in East Anglia holds stock of around £100,000 at any one time, with weekly deliveries…
Of course, living hereabouts it might be all in his imagination, although at the LS train show yesterday over in Mid-Wales I must admit that I saw an awful lot of hallucinatory LGB stuff…
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Well, from a US perspective, LGB is NOT back. Nothing new just some reprints.
Greg
Marklin is more concerned with thier core market, which is mainland Europe and not the USA right now. Newest catalog has more promise of Amtrak items returning. I hope in time we will see more in the states from LGB but not going to hold my breath in the current market conditions. Atleast there is decent second hand market here in the states for LGB items. Would be nice if spare parts was a better but like was said, all manufactures have this problem these days. Some of LGB’s nicer detail parts like the butterfly plow, bear trap spark arrestor ect would sell nicely if offered seperatly. But atleast LGB isnt gone forever. And Massoth branching off on thier own got us a decent supply of normal wear items like track skates, light bulbs ect. I keep a pair of mogul idler gears on hand for when the time comes. Mike
Yea, most of what LGB has out here in the states are just repaints of previous models, some with wildly inflated prices. They are bringing the Mikado back, not a new item, but something that some folks are looking forward to. And I got the Olomana, and that was released before, but the new version has a different gearbox in it. So while LGB isn’t dead, the line isn’t loaded with many new offerings.
Understooded.
tac
tac Foley said:
Devon Sinsley said:
Wendell,
Did I misunderstand your post with regard to new locomotive offerings? Because there more than just Piko and LGB (when and if it returns). We have Bachmann and USA trains. Both making locos and cars; Accucraft as well. Maybe I misunderstood but there are players in the market. I have no dog in this fight. But a standard, whatever that is, would be nice. Getting them to do it, thats a different story.
Sir, your comment above about LGB seems to me grossly out of date. My local LGB dealer here in East Anglia holds stock of around £100,000 at any one time, with weekly deliveries…
Of course, living hereabouts it might be all in his imagination, although at the LS train show yesterday over in Mid-Wales I must admit that I saw an awful lot of hallucinatory LGB stuff…
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Hey I will be the first to admit I am no authority. My out of date information comes from others in the hobby telling me they are not back. I have never once tried to purchase a new LGB loco. So who am I to say. I am have just been watching the scuttle but about the proposed return to business. i hope I am wrong. The more the merrier. My comment was not to say LGB was out of business. My comment was to say there are more than just two companies in the game. The comment I responded to sounded as if Wendell was claiming that only PIKO and LGB were producing locos. Whether LGB is or isn’t doesn’t matter; the point is that Bachmann, USA, Accucraft, and others are.
The main reason I am no expert is I am not in the market for new expensive locomotives. I want old, cheap, hand me downs.
Andrew Beattie said:
I am new to this size, but yes i do, because its confusing, and hard to buy the right thing, when one cant visit a shop with them all on display…
Cheers
Andrew RGGR
Andrew,
I am still a relative newbie to “G scale” having come from HO and N. And like you I was overwhelmed by the “size” of stuff. The thing to remember is the track is all the same. The problem is we are used to thinking in terms of fixed scale. Get that out of your head. In HO everything is the same scale and you have to use different track if you want to run say 3’ narrow gauge. There has to be a whole specialty field for HOn3. In “g scale” there is one track (one gauge) and the scale floats. Whats nice about this is you can model any 1:1 track gauge with 45mm track by building or buying the appropriate scale model. You don’t need an entire new layout to run different prototype gauges.
So in laymans terms, I model 1:20.3 (Fn3) which is American 3’ narrow gauge. You can buy this equipment readily or make it. But I also plan to do a little modern standard gauge stuff in 1:29/1:32. This stuff is also readily available. But even though the scale is different they both will run just fine on the track. There is all sorts of stuff in between also. For example I am dedicating a whole bunch of resources to 1:24 because it is a rubber scale that will look good where ever it goes.
“Large scale” is a better term and better way of thinking. one track many scales all of which can be made to play together.
Devon Sinsley said:
^Big Snip^
The main reason I am no expert is I am not in the market for new expensive locomotives. I want old, cheap, hand me downs.
Kind of like you, eh, Grasshopper? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Steve Featherkile said:
Devon Sinsley said:
^Big Snip^
The main reason I am no expert is I am not in the market for new expensive locomotives. I want old, cheap, hand me downs.
Kind of like you, eh, Grasshopper? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Ya well you know.
deleted
Yes, I like my Heartland stuff too. And since I build in 1:24th scale, the Heartland stuff fits right in.