Model Railroading > Walthers HO Engines

Those of you that own both Walthers and Athearn HO engines how do you compare their performance--sound running power and other comparisons

Thanks
Dale Smith

Posted from iPhone

If you are reffering to newer locomotives from Walthers in the past few years;  most of those are proto 2000 models.  Is the comparison more recent, or of the older models?

Each manufacturer has several "levels" of locomotive.  For Athearn there is the "Ready to Roll" line versus the Genesis line.  For Walthers there are Proto2000, Mainline, plus some older lines.  A lot of the performance is a bit subjective.  There is a good YouTube sight run by "jlwii2000" who compares different models and he tries to do some standardized tests in his presentations.  It is certainly worth watching and you might find what you need in there.  Otherwise it is hard to compare the locomotives.  Each series has different design parameters to meet certain markets in the hobby.  Add to that that some units with DCC may have received different brands of decoders thru different production runs.  In the end, you have to do some homework and also you have to consider what you are buying the locomotive to do.  Is it to look good?  Is it to pull smoothly?  Is it to pull long trains with multiple units?  Are you tryng to capture a sampling of locos from a particular time or railroad?  Those are some of the questions that only you can answer.

Gary B.
Waverly, NE

I own both, IIRC my HO Scale NKP 765 is a Walthers with DCC already in it, and honestly it runs well.  The rest of my fleet is all Athearn, including an old 70's model Chessie GP35, which by itself is a strong runner.  The rest of them are strong runners as well. 

Michael Fair
Royal Oak, MI

Generally speaking, Walthers pull more than Athearn locomotives.

SantaFeRuss

Posted from Android

SantaFeRuss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Generally speaking, Walthers pull more than
> Athearn locomotives.
>
> SantaFeRuss

How do Walthers SD40T-2's pull in relation to Athearns?

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SantaFeRuss Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Generally speaking, Walthers pull more than
> > Athearn locomotives.
> >
> > SantaFeRuss
>
> How do Walthers SD40T-2's pull in relation to
> Athearns?

I cannot account for the tunnel motors, however, I can with the SD70ACe locos. My Walthers SD70ACe will pull more than my Athearn SD70ACe versions. I also have the MTH SD70ACe locomotives. Walthers and MTH are about the same. Athearn unit is slightly less in pulling power. Overall all three pull pretty darn good. My units do not have sound.

SantaFeRuss

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/17 01:17 by SantaFeRuss.