09-11-2010, 08:15 PM
Granted though the original poster of that thread on MRR has a bunch of old 60's and 70's AHM and Athearn locos. Most of the Athearns from back then are way out of scale, for one thing. If they have the old black motors or the big giant ones, they draw too much power for decoders and need to be remotored - and why spend $30 for a good motor when you cna get a Proto Geep for that on ebay?
I had a lot of old stuff fromt he 60's and 70's myself - mostly Tyco with some AHM. I actually did get rid of all but a few pieces that had sentimental value, those are still in their boxes, I doubt I will ever convert them to Kadee couplers and bother with DCC, for the most part they truly AREN'T worth it. And I don;t even want to think how I could put DCC into that Stephenson's Rocket model.
Brass is a completely different animal. Even today very little is available as an alernative to somemodels - it's more than just nostalgia, if you want a particular model and it was only ever made in brass 40 years ago, well, that's what you have to work with. The extra effort is worth it - it's that or have nothing. An old Athearn GP 7 with rubber band drive - if it hold some special value because it was your first loco or something, sure. But if it's just part of a collection you can do better with a more modern version with correct scale width hoods, a better mechanism, and nice handrails. Not to mention drop in DCC.
--Randy
I had a lot of old stuff fromt he 60's and 70's myself - mostly Tyco with some AHM. I actually did get rid of all but a few pieces that had sentimental value, those are still in their boxes, I doubt I will ever convert them to Kadee couplers and bother with DCC, for the most part they truly AREN'T worth it. And I don;t even want to think how I could put DCC into that Stephenson's Rocket model.
Brass is a completely different animal. Even today very little is available as an alernative to somemodels - it's more than just nostalgia, if you want a particular model and it was only ever made in brass 40 years ago, well, that's what you have to work with. The extra effort is worth it - it's that or have nothing. An old Athearn GP 7 with rubber band drive - if it hold some special value because it was your first loco or something, sure. But if it's just part of a collection you can do better with a more modern version with correct scale width hoods, a better mechanism, and nice handrails. Not to mention drop in DCC.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad of the 1950's in HO
Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com
Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com