Large Scale Central

Large scale item that aren't really worth the cost of postage

General Discussion
#1

… but people buy anyway.

I was thinking about this while driving yesterday. Not to bash the manufacturers, they tried… BUT there are an awful lot of pretty crummy things out there on the 2nd hand market that folks just keep buying… even though we all know that they’re really bad.

My top (or bottom) 10 list:

  1. Bachmann’s track has to be #1 on the raspberry list ---- just because
  2. Aristo short turnouts (r-1 switches) - not even their own stuff really likes them!
  3. Lionel 0-6-0s, very few locos on the market run worse, and chances are pretty good that Lionel made those too, except…
  4. 1st and 2nd generation Big Haulers… not even really very good for parts, unless you need a roadname they haven’t offered since, or are desperate.
  5. Plastic wheelsets, any brand
  6. Bachmann bobber cabeese (about as useless as tits on a boar, but everyone seems to own at least two)
  7. Hook 'n look couplers - they WORK great (and I use them!) but…
  8. Mamod live steam 0-4-0, especially ‘as manufactured’ - They CAN be made to run, but it costs almost as much as the base loco to do it!
  9. New Brite and Scientific just about anything
  10. Bachmann Coaling tower - It’s O-scale always was… their cardboard buildings probably belong somewhere here too!
#2

Agree Mik with your No. 1, just bought AMS brass 250 for less than I have ever seen (or close) Bachmann track go for on Evilbay.

#3
Mik said:
7. Hook 'n look couplers - they WORK great (and I use them!) but....
And the purpose of this thread is?
#4

What’s really sad is that I have owned (or still do), and actually PAID FOR, everything on that list… at least once. :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

And the purpose of this thread is?

Still feeling under the weather Rooster? :wink:

#6
David Russell said:
And the purpose of this thread is?
To make you ask questions..... did it work?

Just the simple amusement of the fact that we keep BUYING this stuff, even though if we’d had any sense at all it would have been circular filed long ago…

Gotta do something besides complain about the weather and make fun of Joisey.

#7
Randy McDonald said:
And the purpose of this thread is?

Still feeling under the weather Rooster? :wink:


whatafor you needa porpoise?

#8

Another ‘porpoise’ might well be that it COULD actually save a newbie some money and aggravation BEFORE they got turned off of LS by the lemons?

#9
Mik said:
6. Bachmann bobber cabeese (about as useless as tits on a boar, but everyone seems to own at least two)
Ya just gotta figure out how to tweak it ;) Am quite happy with mine.
#10
Randy McDonald said:
And the purpose of this thread is?

Still feeling under the weather Rooster? :wink:


How many of us will admit to having or have had anything on the list? your excused if you used it to build something better

I’ll admit to having had at least half of the list at one time or antoher

#11

“And the purpose of this thread is?”
I was only replying to that quote and not agreeing with it.

#12

Ok I have had or do have half the list.
Bmann track. Did not know better when I first got into G scale. Sold it really fast once I got to know.
Aristo trun out. Used it for a bit had little truble only sold it because my Loco’s keep getting bigger so no R1 anything would work.
Big Haulers…BBT drives will fix that trouble.
Hook and Loop…All I run and I get them for free or easy trade to others that hate them.
And the best…Plastic wheels…Have a box fulll anyone wont to trade for hook and loop cuplers?

#13

Geoff,
I have a whole pile of hook and loop stuff I will send you if you pay the postage. :)=) :D=D
Rick

#14

Mik said:
6. Bachmann bobber cabeese

Aw, with a spot of imagination and work they can make nice little models. Give it a 3 point suspension, increase coupler swing, and it’ll happily tag along all day. Here are my three of “at least two” in progress. To be lettered for the Pennsylvania This one is second hand.

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa309/FSW4picts/G%20gauge%20projects/3%20point%20suspension%20for%20bobber%20caboose/IMG_5989.jpg)

To be lettered for the Virginia & Truckee Kathy and I split a kit which comes with 2; she’s building hers with cupola and painting it fire engine red.

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa309/FSW4picts/G%20gauge%20projects/3%20point%20suspension%20for%20bobber%20caboose/IMG_5990.jpg)

Glenbrook Valley trainset caboose with scratchbuilt markers and Miniatronics lampshade over conductor’s desk. 9v battery power with switch on bottom. Other two will be done same way.

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa309/FSW4picts/G%20gauge%20projects/3%20point%20suspension%20for%20bobber%20caboose/IMG_5992.jpg)

#15

I have a box of both plastic wheel and hook and loops I will give away.
Ron

#16

I must have come pretty close, I’m not hearing many other candidates mentioned…

I thought about the Rogers, designed with a ugly stick, but it pulls well, so it didn’t make the list.
The Lionel Atlantic has trouble pulling the skin off of pudding (at least for long) but it looks really nice.
Flip a coin on the Aristo 0-4-0, either they’re really great or turds… and telling the difference before you stick it on the track is impossible! Maybe their QC inspector needs to be on the list?
Bachmann’s cheese final drive gears, which models beside the Connie, and the 3rd gen big hauler? Again, it seems to be a flip of a coin whether you’ll ever have trouble. 1st gen Shay trucks were reportedly cheese as well, but B’mann made a fix available for that.
B’mann 2-4-2 Lynn and Hawaii #5 drives… Those almost made the list, but I didn’t want it to look like I was simply picking on the boys from Kader.
OK, one more, hehehe…Bachmann’s transformers almost made the list. But they work OK with HO or a trolley… Maybe for a test track or paperweight as well?
What about Piko’s 0-6-0ST? I haven’t owned one, not yet. But the stuff I’ve heard is mixed. The valve gear just hanging around really annoys me every time I see one run. But what is the rest really like?
Is there a reason I keep seeing Aristo and USA dismal bricks offered with one blown gear? Bad design or just overloading by folks who want long trains?
The BuddyL/Keystone/Heritage/whateverthehelltheycallitthisweek 2-6-2… maybe it should be on the list at #11?

Just about every manufacturer has made some great stuff, and at least one stinkeroo. If you go in knowing you’re going to have to fart around to get it to work, that’s one thing. But do you remember that huge letdown when your great new toy turned out to be a total PoS? Like getting an itchy dog puke green sweater from Aunt Edna for Christmas — that fit. So you actually had to WEAR it… to school!
Other items are on the list not because they’re necessarily that BAD, per se – just that supply usually exceeds demand by a rather wide margin — BUT to add insult to it all, when you happen to be out and want a couple, there’s usually some other doofus with more money than brains that does too!

#17

I’ve had most of them. Matter of fact, still have most of them in junk boxes. If it ain’t worth a crap, I don’t want to unload it on some other sucker.
And I’d add the Buddy L locomotive to the list.
Ralph

#18

What’s funny is that I haven’t been in large scale long enough to know some of these things even exist.
Guess that blended with very little cash any more is one way to not get one of those and be disappointed, eh?

#19
Ron Hill said:
I have a box of both plastic wheel and hook and loops I will give away. Ron
Hmmmm . . .
#20

Forrest, my ‘at least two’ B’mann bobbers got freight trucks and interiors… fixed them right up! But one got carted to about 20-25 shows and flea markets and went unsold at $10 first… The other I’d had been ‘preserving’ (read: stuffed in a box) since I got the 1st gen bug mauler set… back in something like 1993!

As for “not knowing some of them exist”, you lucky dog!!!