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TylerP42

Conductor
Joined
May 22, 2015
Messages
1,223
Location
Detroit, Michigan
Hello all,

If you've read my introduction you know I had a grandfather who loved model trains. I've gotten into the hobby more and more and I am now going to be part of a model railroad club. I need some help getting started.

Could you guys send me to some good but cheaper amtrak HO scale locomotives and cars? I'm mostly looking for Superliners and P42's but if you find a good price on some baggage cars or amfleet/horizon cars feel free to post them! Thanks everyone for the help in advance!
 
Athern seems to have some runs of the P42s. I have two in my collection. 129 an engine. All the heritage engines and two regular engines. And the best source for cars is Walthers
 
Kato makes the super awesome P42 with truck mounted motors, they are more expensive, but are so much better pulling, better sound, and faster, I reccomend one athearn, and one Kato, the Kato does all the work, and the Athearn makes it look like there are two engines, like there should be.
 
Kato makes the super awesome P42 with truck mounted motors, they are more expensive, but are so much better pulling, better sound, and faster, I reccomend one athearn, and one Kato, the Kato does all the work, and the Athearn makes it look like there are two engines, like there should be.
It's not good to mix the operating speeds of two manufacturers in HO scale trains, and I have three athern and one kato P42 in HO scale. I should be able to stretch their legs on the fifth of August in great falls Montana as part of the Montana State Fair.
 
what about (if you can) adjusting the decoders to match, with speed tables, I do that a lot with my BLI Mountain (intermountain) and a friends Cab forward, so I can run them together, pulling a very heavy fruit train, hoping to get a rivarossi big boy, will need to speed match that as well, when I get it
 
Last edited by a moderator:
what about (if you can) adjusting the decoders to match, with speed tables, I do that a lot with my BLI Mountain (intermountain) and a friends Cab forward, so I can run them together, pulling a very heavy fruit train, hoping to get a rivarossi big boy, will need to speed match that as well, when I get it
I don't have much experience with DCC, so I am not sure that this particular combination would work.
 
Hello all,

If you've read my introduction you know I had a grandfather who loved model trains. I've gotten into the hobby more and more and I am now going to be part of a model railroad club. I need some help getting started.

Could you guys send me to some good but cheaper amtrak HO scale locomotives and cars? I'm mostly looking for Superliners and P42's but if you find a good price on some baggage cars or amfleet/horizon cars feel free to post them! Thanks everyone for the help in advance!
Go for quality, not price. If you can't afford an engine, then use a club one until you can. You will regret buying cheap. As a kid (until my parents gave away my stuff without my knowledge when I went off to college) I had American Flyer. When I got married, my wife encouraged me to try it again but I didn't know that in HO there was cheap garbage and there was quality. I gave up only when I figured it out and by that time had lost interest.

I recently joined a club and bought a Kato P42. Total quality (motors over each truck)! Wow! I got a great price from a small place in Wisconsin who had one engine with DCC/sound and wanted to get rid of it - the last Kato P42 he had.

I just ordered a second Kato P42 from Tony's Trains. Almost as good a deal. More than that, they pointed me to Walther's cars on the Walther's site. He even gave me 25% off on those so I picked up two Viewliners (I'm in the east) from him. I'll search the train shows for more quality cars at an even better price.

Whatever you do, on your cars get metal wheels and quality couplers. Check your club's rules. Ours requires them.
 
what about (if you can) adjusting the decoders to match, with speed tables, I do that a lot with my BLI Mountain (intermountain) and a friends Cab forward, so I can run them together, pulling a very heavy fruit train, hoping to get a rivarossi big boy, will need to speed match that as well, when I get it
I don't have much experience with DCC, so I am not sure that this particular combination would work.
one of my friends uses that combo on his HO Empire Builder
 
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