2014 N Scale Locomotive of the Year

[bman]

Well, since everyone has their reasons for chiming in for their choice and staunchly defends them,  I'll play along.  I gotta go with the U25C.  It comes in a wunnerful shade of Blue.  And it's a big ole' GE locomotive from when I was a kid.  Of course, I don't know crap about steam locomotives.  So it's easy to not pay much attention to what new ones get introduced.

But in all seriousness.  Although the new offerings may have somewhat lean like Spookshow said,  the offerings themselves were anything but in my humble opinion.  There's pretty much something there for everyone for the most part. 

[Puddington]

I don't have a "dog in the hunt" as I need none of the major offerings but I'll throw a vote to the Arnold U25C because of the fact that a new (or at the very least) long time removed and now returning player has come to the table with a viable North American locomotive. That bodes well for N scale moving forward.

[JSL]

I vote for the Ace. Very good running loco! Now just waiting on BNSF ones.

[sirenwerks]

Maybe we should separate this into categories.  Maybe have a loco model of the year, an innovation of the year, a step-back-to-the-dark-ages of the year for the gripers...

My vote goes to the Atlas S2.  I don't think enough can be said for switchers, especially one that had been around so long and covers so many owner possibilities.  The Arnold U28C gets my next vote, just because I want some.  Kato gets kudos from me for its progressive design steps, but the FEF is no where on my want list.  I would be happy to explore use of the mechanism though for other possibilities, perhaps something GN or NP.

[peteski]

Maybe we should separate this into categories.  Maybe have a loco model of the year, an innovation of the year, a step-back-to-the-dark-ages of the year for the gripers...

My vote goes to the Atlas S2. 

Were those already released in 2014?!?  Did I miss my chance to get the B&M unit? 

[reinhardtjh]

Were those already released in 2014?!?  Did I miss my chance to get the B&M unit? 

*sigh*  Not yet.  Maybe not now until after Chinese New Year, which, with transit time might mean May-ish (2015, I hope).

[peteski]

*sigh*  Not yet.  Maybe not now until after Chinese New Year, which, with transit time might mean May-ish (2015, I hope).

I'm now confused about the voting. If we can vote for locos not released in 2014 (like Atlas S2), why not also include the hotly expected PRR locos from BLI?   Where do we draw the line?

[ntrakia]

if you bemoan the meager locomotive offerings for 014--6--maybe you missed out on the late sixties and seventies of n-scale when we were lucky to get 2 per year.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I really do like me Arnold U25C. The detail is fantastic and there are many, many more phases than what Kato did with their FEF. The engine seems to run fine, but I have not put it through a full test. Pulling power is about the best out there.

[bman]

if you bemoan the meager locomotive offerings for 014--6--maybe you missed out on the late sixties and seventies of n-scale when we were lucky to get 2 per year.

Oh you just had to bring that up didn't you?  I didn't miss out on that.  And still don't miss those dark times every time I put one of my modern Atlas, Kato, Life-Like locos on the track.  Times are good!

[peteski]

I really do like me Arnold U25C. The detail is fantastic and there are many, many more phases than what Kato did with their FEF. The engine seems to run fine, but I have not put it through a full test. Pulling power is about the best out there.

I wonder it it pulls better than the original Kato GP38-2 and the F units?  Those things were really heavy and pulled like son of a b...

What would be really amusing is to hook up the U25C and FEF-3 and see which would out-pull the other.  The battle of N scale locos! I do have the FEF but I'm not planning on buying the U-boat. Maybe we could get together in Springfield and do this as a test. 

[wcfn100]

What would be really amusing is to hook up the U25C and FEF-3 and see which would out-pull the other.

Or who throws a tire first.

Jason

[peteski]

Or who throws a tire first.

Jason

True... but the new Kato traction tires seem to fit tighter then they did on the GS4. I'm counting on them, on large-diameter drivers, to give the FEF-3 an unfair advantage. 

[nstars]

True... but the new Kato traction tires seem to fit tighter then they did on the GS4. I'm counting on them, on large-diameter drivers, to give the FEF-3 an unfair advantage. 

Normally larger wheels should be a disadvantage  .

Marc

[rrjim1]

To be fair the FEF-3 had some where between 5000-6000 horse power, that's a good guess because steam locos weren't rated that way. So we need two U25Cs to have a fair contest. I'll bet on the U25Cs.