My 18 y.o. son and I are starting a build from scratch. Other than owning a Life-Like HO beginner set 8 years ago, we are novices. We've been researching daily, for the last few weeks, about various topics of interest. We have about 75 square feet of space, but plan to start small (perhaps an initial 4x8) with additional sections when we're ready to expand.
Focusing on locomotives we've narrowed down our search to HO --> Steam (style only is fine, doesn't need to puff smoke) --> 2-8-2 Mikado --> Southern rail line --> DCC (preferably equipped).
I think I would like to stick with a new purchase (and warranty). In the new market I'm seeing 2 choices: Broadway Limited (#5555 and #5556) and Bachmann (#54403). BLI is at the top of my locomotive budget and costs about 25-35% higher than the Bachmann (depending on website availability). Looking at pics on the internet, the BLI appeared to have finer detail and overall better appearance in my opinion. Unfortunately you can't always trust pics on the internet. We saw one of the BLIs at a local train shop and it was quite attractive. They did not have a Bachmann on hand.
As far as performance, I didn't find many reviews about these 2 specific models. Summarizing what I did find, BLI seemed to have fairly high approval, while Bachmann was more "hit or miss" and needing more set up work straight out of the box to get them running smoothly.
Right now, BLI is sitting #1 for me. Would love some sage advice from anyone willing to chime in. Thanks!
Focusing on locomotives we've narrowed down our search to HO --> Steam (style only is fine, doesn't need to puff smoke) --> 2-8-2 Mikado --> Southern rail line --> DCC (preferably equipped).
I think I would like to stick with a new purchase (and warranty). In the new market I'm seeing 2 choices: Broadway Limited (#5555 and #5556) and Bachmann (#54403). BLI is at the top of my locomotive budget and costs about 25-35% higher than the Bachmann (depending on website availability). Looking at pics on the internet, the BLI appeared to have finer detail and overall better appearance in my opinion. Unfortunately you can't always trust pics on the internet. We saw one of the BLIs at a local train shop and it was quite attractive. They did not have a Bachmann on hand.
As far as performance, I didn't find many reviews about these 2 specific models. Summarizing what I did find, BLI seemed to have fairly high approval, while Bachmann was more "hit or miss" and needing more set up work straight out of the box to get them running smoothly.
Right now, BLI is sitting #1 for me. Would love some sage advice from anyone willing to chime in. Thanks!