I have had serious quality issues with every major brand but one…And that brand went ‘belly-up’.
I hope Aristo survives as they have many unique and innovative products. I wish them well.
todd whittier said:If you dont mind me asking, how did the wheels bend ?
I have a older pair where the motor is good but the wheels a bent. I was going to replace the because the loco wobbles down the track. I don't want to buy new if I have to repair it before use. Anyone else have a issue with these? I found it kind of funny that Aristo seems to have limited stock on hand?
Nick
Nick,
They’re probably not bent, just not square on the axles. Apparently that happens all the time with many mfgs in any of the scales. Sloppy quality control!
John, the last company that had “Fire Sales” ended up on a New Jersey airfield.
While I don’t do the 1/29 thing I would sorely miss their dismal motor blocks if they went away. Seams to me like they are always overreaching, their locomotives to me are overly complicated, overstuffed full of electronics that make an electronics degree necessary for basic operations, granted that seams to be what everyone wants but the old saying ‘the more pipes you add to the plumbing the easier it is to stuff up the works’ comes to mind. I think they got so focused on the Revo electronics end they forgot the dam thing has to run, and be reliable and durable. That’s one thing EPL never failed to be sure of, and most of the time EPLs stuff ran like a Swiss clock. Aristo cut corners to save money and cut costs but they have paid a price over the last decade in that everyone considers them the Maserati of model trains, guaranteed to have beautiful gorgeous models, that look and sound awesome, drive like a dream, and break down 10 miles outside of town. They have some already very proven products in the past. I wish they would get back to basics.
Curious…
The majority of locomotives and other rolling stock that I own are Aristo, because… I dunno… ???
My go to locomotive when I want to run is…
a Lionel Atlantic that has had the motor tied down with two more zip ties… about 3 pounds of tire (tyre for you guys on the other side of the pond) balancing leads that I got from my son-in-law, … and no other modifications.
Strange.
If you want a $600.00 toilet seat, you will have to pay for that $600.00 toilet seat. Stated differently, if you want serious, no fail QC, you will have to pay for it.
I guess that is why they call this a hobby, “Some assembly required.” 
:lol: 
Steve Featherkile said:
...My go to locomotive when I want to run is....a Lionel Atlantic…
I am very impressed by how all my Atlantics run with a few minor “tweaks”. Love 'em!
Nick I don’t know how? This was a ebay purchase from an estate. Got it cheap($60), said it ran. Yuup it ran, but it wabbles. I was thinking of by new trucks. I hope Aristo holds on. I just focused my modeling scale to 1:29. 
todd whittier said:Todd, Al Krammer on Ebay has the standard version blocks on Ebay all the time so you might be able to get them from him. I have been using USA Trains motors blocks for years on club members RS-3 and it's a fairly simple install and the motor blocks are much more robust then the Aristo version.
Nick I don't know how? This was a ebay purchase from an estate. Got it cheap($60), said it ran. Yuup it ran, but it wabbles. I was thinking of by new trucks. I hope Aristo holds on. I just focused my modeling scale to 1:29. :)
Nick
Steve Featherkile said:
Curious...The majority of locomotives and other rolling stock that I own are Aristo, because… I dunno… ???
My go to locomotive when I want to run is…
a Lionel Atlantic that has had the motor tied down with two more zip ties… about 3 pounds of tire (tyre for you guys on the other side of the pond) balancing leads that I got from my son-in-law, … and no other modifications.
Strange.
If you want a $600.00 toilet seat, you will have to pay for that $600.00 toilet seat. Stated differently, if you want serious, no fail QC, you will have to pay for it.
I guess that is why they call this a hobby, “Some assembly required.”
Agreed, the Lionel Atlantic’s are a cool engine once properly prepared, I,m doing one over as we speak and really tricking it out with paint, QSI Smoke unit
and just a general work over. Im going to do a thread on it here soon.
Nick
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Nick,They’re probably not bent, just not square on the axles. Apparently that happens all the time with many mfgs in any of the scales. Sloppy quality control!
HJ,
I agree but you would think these days Quality would be a simple thing with the money we pay for train items, I have to laugh because sometimes I get Ragged on be cause I talk about USA Trains all the time, but they “work” simple as that. I take out of the box put them on the track and go.
If they did the same thing Aristo does, I’d be all over them as well. Honestly If you do a search of all the Forums whens the last time you heard of a
problem with USA products compared to Aristo. People cant compare Aristo to USA because USA is out of Aristo league when it comes to everything
train related. Its just really the truth, but sad at the same time.
Nick
Nick, glad you like them (USA), I do too. That said, my experience has not matched yours. My 1st USA purchase was an SD40-2 with a frozen rear motor block…Hummed but did not move. My second was a GP30, one truck was quiet, the other whined like a dentist drill. USA service was not too forward in offering assistance in both cases. I returned the SD to the LHS for a new one and repaired the NIB GP with a new block I had to order from USA.
I have a USA Santa Fe crane/tender I swear sheds parts if I just look at it wrong. The crane tender has had just about every piece glued back on at least once (I think it’s due to the silver paint?).
My Aristo RS3 is a true champ, my first ‘F’ unit self destructed in a month.
Make no mistake, I love my USA stock…I just don’t see a difference between them and Aristo from my own experiences.
Nicholas Savatgy said:
Agreed, the Lionel Atlantic's are a cool engine once properly prepared, I,m doing one over as we speak and really tricking it out with paint, QSI Smoke unit and just a general work over. Im going to do a thread on it here soon.Nick
Looking forward to seeing it.
Victor Smith said:I agree with everything you have said, Victor; my opinion is much the same...
John,.... (big snip).....I wish they would get back to basics.
I give top marks to Aristo-Craft for trying to provide us with all the luxuries you can think of on their models, from metal handgrabs to smoking woodstoves and working marker lights, and the list really does go on and on. And beautiful looking models, as you say, Victor, really gorgeous enough to get us salivating. What’s not to love?
Well, I’d trade the beautiful lookers for plain basic, undecorated models that run beautifully and reliably. It’s a great pleasure to customize a really reliable locomotive once we’re confident we’ve got a good runner, well run-in and thoroughly proven in service.
I’m not connected to the company, HLW. They seem to stick pretty close to the KISS principle, thank goodness. I can say I’ve found HLW stuff to be simple, tough and reliable, and definitely worth customizing. I would love it if Aristo took a page or two out of their book and dropped the luxury approach - it’s just too much a source of trouble.
It occurs to me that there are many advantages for the manufacturer in simplicity, not the least of which is that if it’s the hobbyist who adds all the fancy complications, and they cause him trouble, he has no one to blame but himself! :lol:
I think the biggest hurdle is we (as modelers) want exactly what we want, with all the bells and whistles, at the absolutely dirt cheap price we can get, RIGHT NOW.
Quality control costs money- as in at least ONE guy from your home office going TO China to hold their feet to the fire. That raises the price. Beta testing takes time, and often reworking things. That seriously delays release. Soooo we get what we clamored for. We wanted it so bad, so it’s bad.
What puzzles me is the continual lack of many spare parts… especially fragile, wear and problem items. Oh, I realize the MBA mindset that all that “matters” is this quarter’s profits rules most businesses these days… But you’d think at SOME point they’d realize having this stuff was advertising goodwill that money can’t buy… but nooo, when it breaks, you’re supposed to throw it out and buy another.
Mik said:
I think the biggest hurdle is we (as modelers) want exactly what we want, with all the bells and whistles, at the absolutely dirt cheap price we can get, RIGHT NOW.Quality control costs money- as in at least ONE guy from your home office going TO China to hold their feet to the fire. That raises the price. Beta testing takes time, and often reworking things. That seriously delays release. Soooo we get what we clamored for. We wanted it so bad, so it’s bad.
…
Hmmmmm, just speaking for myself, I’m willing to pay a fair price - that is one where the quality and the price are in the correct relation; I’m also willing to wait.
If you toss up the cost of quality control against the cost of delivering a substandard product that then needs fixing and garners a lot of unwanted attention - well, it’s a no brainer. Keep on delivering substandard stuff and the impression will be that whoever runs the outfit has no brains!
Mik said:
I think the biggest hurdle is we (as modelers) want exactly what we want, with all the bells and whistles, at the absolutely dirt cheap price we can get, RIGHT NOW.Quality control costs money- as in at least ONE guy from your home office going TO China to hold their feet to the fire. That raises the price. Beta testing takes time, and often reworking things. That seriously delays release. Soooo we get what we clamored for. We wanted it so bad, so it’s bad.
What puzzles me is the continual lack of many spare parts… especially fragile, wear and problem items. Oh, I realize the MBA mindset that all that “matters” is this quarter’s profits rules most businesses these days… But you’d think at SOME point they’d realize having this stuff was advertising goodwill that money can’t buy… but nooo, when it breaks, you’re supposed to throw it out and buy another.
One quote from some time back, major Chin…ese player. “You stupid Americans. Out playing with toys while we industrious Chinese are busy making money”. Spare parts? “We aren’t interested in spare parts. We make them cheap enough, when they break, buy a new one”.
You never heard about “regrind” and what happened to Botch Shay trucks? And still happens from time to time in the strangest of places…last one was a lead truck on a 2-8-0.
Remember the bottom screws on early Botch Shays that you almost had to drill out?
Someone (I know who) from the home office went over, started at the beginning of the line, set the air tools to the proper setting…got to the end of the line, and started in again…and the Chin…ese workers had already re-set the tools to what THEY thought it should be.
There is no hope, dealing with that mindset, if you want to sell at a specific price point.
You buy all-in, full right of inspection and rejection, yeah, you can force the quality, but the price goes way up.
Me? I gave up. I have bought my last LS item, several years ago to be precise, when some moron became some companies “technical consultant”.
MSRP, MAP, how does one justify a plastic model for $1575 MSRP? Because the folks “over there” know what our dollar is really worth, and make certain they get their share.
How can companies argue (like they did, to me, back in what, 03 when the Numbskull Mentally Retarde…oooops…the nmra asked me to communicate with them over track and wheel standards) that “There is no standard”. Horse effluent.
Has been for longer than anyone on this forum has been alive, roughly, and more specifically, since G1MRA placed them in stone.
Convince these companies? Not on your life.
One even stated they would do anything for standards EXCEPT nmra.
One said they would abide by any wheel standards so long as they didn’t have to address locomotive wheels, which is where the problem was.
We have companies who make a track and wheel gauge, sell it to unsuspecting consumers, that matches neither their own wheelsets not track.
Go figure.
Pompous axxes like those ones need to let someone else do it for them.
See, now here’s this e-Mail that just arrived a few minutes ago from AristoCraft. It’s entitled ‘We Hope These Help Your Layout’. You’ve gotta love a company that says something like that…
They’re making yet another hard-to-resist offer on some of their stainless steel track. #20400, 19.5 degree crossing @29.95, #20405 30 degree crossing @29.95, and #20410 90 degree crossing @19.99. The MSR Prices on these things has been $86, $86, and $60, respectively. These are 1/3 of the regular retail prices. Combine this with the wide radius switches I mentioned a couple of days ago and all I can say is I wish they were doing this 6 years ago! What do you guys make of all this as far as the company’s future health is concerned? This is good for us, but is it good for them? I do very much want this outfit to stay in business!
I’d probably better make it clear that I’m not related to them either, but I’m glad to pass the info along FWIW…
Quality issues, probably why I try to stick to LGB when it comes to motive power and power supplies. To bad they never did more American prototype diesels beyond the F units, Genesis and DRGW #50. Today, everything is overpriced, the Chinese are sticking it to us to say the least. Mike
Mike…Don’t forget the Alco’s! They, and my F-units are the best running loco’s I have ever owned.
Well John,
I remember back in 2006 there was a certain mfg who flogged all kinds of stuff at prices that were strictly unbelievable and … not soon after they declared insolvency. Naturally that was just an administrative move because the banks tried to squeeze them (blah, blah, blah). Or so the story went on both sides of the pond with slightly different wording adjusted for the different consumer groups and … and … and …
Now I’m not saying that this is a similar case, however … when you’re a bit short of cash this is usually the first move on the chess board. With a few more to follow …
PS the Big Saga is still to be found here and on other fora on the Internet.