Bad N gauge models

[Portpatrick]

It's nice to known that I'm not the only one to admitre the Minitrix Brit as a Clan!  Here's my 72009 "Clan Stewart":

I must try a photo, though I find the way you do them on the forum complex and uncertain, unlike Facebook.  Anyway, my own clan is 72006, Clan McKensie.  Cant remember the spelling, I am not at home to check.  I have pics of the real one on
the Port Road.

[silly moo]

I was given three very old  Farish 94xx s (as we have very few British outline modellers in our club I tend to get given the odd British loco that's turned up in an attic or cupboard) All three had a slightly different motor arrangement,  I managed to get one to run but it ran so badly I consigned it and the others to the preservation sidings on my layout. They were given a paint treatment to make them look rusty.

A friend of mine bought some of the very early Farish models and found them so disappointing that he now models Continental outline.

The Peco Jubliee which came out at about the same time must have seemed like a Rolls Royce!

[macwales]

Hi

My worst loco has got to be my Farish Black 5 because it was expensive (at the time) and in spite of a guarantee repair and several dismantles, cleans and checks by me following tips on the Forum it still stutter and sticks and wont pull well. I never run it now but because it looks so good it resides in a near siding where it can be easily inspected.

My two Minitrix 9Fs are not run either, not because there is anything wrong with  them (one will pull all my wagons!) but because they look large and strange alongside my good looking Dapol weathered 9F and I did not allow enough platform clearance for their cylinder blocks that stick out a bit.

Cheers

Mac 

[Mito]

Going by a lot of the comments above virtually all my locos are bad. Some of them are 40 years old and include cast metal locos with the worm gear obvious. I like them, they do what I want them to do, they pull decent length trains without the need of expensive electronic gizmos. They may not be accurate scale models but they impart the essence of a railway. Being able to see all the rivets is not important as my eyes don't see them. I have two new locos which I wish I'd never bought. All bells and whistles and can't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Now that is bad.
At the end of the day, bad and good are relative. I just enjoy my hobby and it seems everybody here does too.

[Elvinley]

I was given three very old  Farish 94xx s (as we have very few British outline modellers in our club I tend to get given the odd British loco that's turned up in an attic or cupboard) All three had a slightly different motor arrangement,  I managed to get one to run but it ran so badly I consigned it and the others to the preservation sidings on my layout. They were given a paint treatment to make them look rusty.

A friend of mine bought some of the very early Farish models and found them so disappointing that he now models Continental outline.

The Peco Jubliee which came out at about the same time must have seemed like a Rolls Royce!

It did indeed. I remember having one in the early 80s. The only issue with mine was that the valve gear used to lock up sometimes.

[Newportnobby]

Going by a lot of the comments above virtually all my locos are bad. Some of them are 40 years old and include cast metal locos with the worm gear obvious. I like them, they do what I want them to do, they pull decent length trains without the need of expensive electronic gizmos. They may not be accurate scale models but they impart the essence of a railway. Being able to see all the rivets is not important as my eyes don't see them. I have two new locos which I wish I'd never bought. All bells and whistles and can't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Now that is bad.
At the end of the day, bad and good are relative. I just enjoy my hobby and it seems everybody here does too.

Very well said, that man
I have 54 diesels and 45 steamers from Farish, Dapol, Minitrix and 1 each from Ixion and Peco. I have only ever returned 4 locos (and they weren't Minitrix or Ixion). Being an old DC dinosaur it is nice to have some with lights but the ability to turn off the rear ones without dismantling the body will be a welcome improvement. Farish seemed to make a quantum leap with their coreless motors so I'm hoping Dapol will be doing the same whenever I get my hands of the Bulleid BoB (I might even be around to play with it )
The main issue I find is noise. Cardon shaft noise, echoing withing the bodyshell, whining diesels etc.
If Farish can make a class 24 that is so quiet I have keep searching for it on the layout why are my new class 20, 25, 31 and 37 so noisy? Other locos that tend to get 'lost' on the layout are my J39, Fairburn, 5MTs and N class. In fact, many of my steamers are much less noisy than my diesels.
I do feel so sorry for folks who have to return locos on what seems to be a fairly constant basis (especially if they live abroad) so consider myself very lucky especially as I do not 'fettle' things but just lubricate/run in according to the instructions.
If I have any bad 'uns they are a pair of the old Poole class 101 green DMUs. What a pair of frightful old growlers they are but they've now been superceded by the newer generation models.

[Chris Morris]

Going by a lot of the comments above virtually all my locos are bad. Some of them are 40 years old and include cast metal locos with the worm gear obvious. I like them, they do what I want them to do, they pull decent length trains without the need of expensive electronic gizmos. They may not be accurate scale models but they impart the essence of a railway. Being able to see all the rivets is not important as my eyes don't see them. I have two new locos which I wish I'd never bought. All bells and whistles and can't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Now that is bad.
At the end of the day, bad and good are relative. I just enjoy my hobby and it seems everybody here does too.

That's the great thing about the forum. We will all have different views on things. Nobody is right or wrong about a model - just different based on what happens to be important to the individual. So whilst I have said I think all early n models are bad I can appreciate that many people see them as great for their needs. It's kind of like the track debate a few weeks ago - some think code 40 is essential for a good model while others are happy with code 80. Again there is no right or wrong opinion just different views based on what is important to the individual.

[railsquid]

I got the impression this thread is about poor-performing models, not detail? Despite being new-ish to the hobby I've acquired some older models, some of which are quite good runners (if not as quiet as current versions) I'm quite fond of, while being disappointed by beautifully detailed but temperamental newer ones.

[johnlambert]

Going by a lot of the comments above virtually all my locos are bad. Some of them are 40 years old and include cast metal locos with the worm gear obvious. I like them, they do what I want them to do, they pull decent length trains without the need of expensive electronic gizmos. They may not be accurate scale models but they impart the essence of a railway. Being able to see all the rivets is not important as my eyes don't see them. I have two new locos which I wish I'd never bought. All bells and whistles and can't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Now that is bad.
At the end of the day, bad and good are relative. I just enjoy my hobby and it seems everybody here does too.

It all depends what you want.  If your locos meet your criteria then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

I don't think I've got anything that's 40 years old but I do have a couple of Graham Farish locos that were made in Poole with a 5-pole motor.  I wouldn't class either of them as bad; for all their cosmetic faults they do, as you said, run well and pull decent trains (my Graham Farish 'Crab' 2-6-0 will out pull my tender-drive Bachman-Farish 'Black 5').

The Lima Deltic, on the other hand, seems to tick all of the boxes for a bad model; the dimensions are wrong, it doesn't pull well, the pickup arrangement is poor.  About the only thing in its favour was that it did still work despite many years of use and (probably) neglect.  So I suppose even the worst N gauge loco isn't entirely without virtue.

[Newportnobby]

I do have a couple of Graham Farish locos that were made in Poole with a 5-pole motor.  I wouldn't class either of them as bad; for all their cosmetic faults they do, as you said, run well and pull decent trains (my Graham Farish 'Crab' 2-6-0 will out pull my tender-drive Bachman-Farish 'Black 5').

My oldest models are 5 pole motored Farish too, and 'twas only yesterday afternoon I was running a Castle on an Up passenger train and an 8F on a down mineral. Both ran extremely well and quietly.
I know the Castle I have on pre order will look vastly better to the old one, and just wish Farish would do a retooled 8F as I think it would sell shedloads.

[silly moo]

My oldest loco is a three poled Farish Jinty which I keep for sentimental reasons, it's very noisy. I have a few old locos that I've hung on to, mainly Minitrix and three Poole Farish Crabs which all run exceptionally well, Most of the older locos have been upgraded to more recent DCC ready offerings when they come along. Oh and I have two Peco Jubilees.

[EtchedPixels]

The early class 101 was another mechanical oops. The brass on brass gears on the motor wore rapidly. The later ones had a plastic gear which fixed that but the power pickup was still useless.

Fitted with extra pickups though they were nice, and you got a full interior that was lost on the later big chassis.

The early HST had the same problems with the added feature that when the front bogie stalled on a point the back one usually derailed the entire train rather than pushing it over the point.

[Les1952]

Having started in N in the seventies, with the locos that were available at the time I'm surprised that N-gauge took off at all.  I couldn't afford a Jubilee and only just managed a Minitrix 2-6-2T.

One of my BETTER locos was the Atlas 0-6-0T which featured in the early posts of this thread- noisy and nothing like a UK loco but it ran. 

I also had a pair of Graham Farish "J69" tanks- which were quite a way out of proportion compared with the prototype.  Again not good runners- and they ran in opposite directions to each other straight out of the box.......

Eventually I managed a pair of Arnold 0-4-0 tank chassis and built Peco kits on them.  The Avonside is the only survivor I have from the seventies, lurking in a box somewhere.  These and the Minitrix kept me going to 1979 when I discovered Roco HO locos and changed scale (for the second time- I changed from TT to N in about 1973-4).

Les

[Roy L S]

Agreed re: the 8F Mick although we have of course in the absence of it now been treated to the truly excellent WD 2-8-0.

I was trying to think what my own oldest N loco is (ignoring those oldies I have bought since for reasons of nostalgia). I would think it has to be my Jubilees (Albeit both were repainted in the late 90s to BR livery by Fred Hempsall). Both run superbly and even if lacking in fine detail are still fine models.

The list of basket cases from the 70s I owned is long and distinguished, pretty much any Lima loco was dire (I had a 31, 2 Fowlers and 2 "Claytons") the Ivatt 2-6-0 I had was a lovely smooth runner but from new struggled with more than 2 coaches or about 8 wagons.

The advent of the "New" Farish chassis encouraged me to stay, the 94xx was a revelation compared to the earlier models I had. It was followed by a Hall (plastic pony wheels and all) a Prairie and GP Tanks, then my first Jubilee...

Roy