Austrian Built Roco Diesels

[strummer]

 I've been dabbling lately in some European stuff, and it seems that in that world, Roco engines do not carry the same foul taste as they do here in the States. They are regarded as being what one might call "high end second tier" engines, second only to Fleishmann and, of course, Kato.
 I picked up a few examples of these Roco engines, and I must say, I've been surprised, relieved and somewhat shocked with how good they are. I've been around long enough, I'm afraid, to remember how crappy the Roco-builts were for Atlas in N scale. Their HO and O scale models were quite good, but in N, no way. So I wasn't really expecting too much.
 One of the three locos (a DB V200) is as quiet as any Katos I have, and I'd rank the other two (both DB 215s) as easily being on par with some of the nicer Life-Like engines from the '90's. Not whisper quiet, but really quite good. And what I find surprising about those two are that the mechanisms appear to be identical to the one found in the old Atlas FAs; I had one of those years ago, and it was not great...so go figure.

Mark in Oregon

[peteski]

That is true, Roco modles are in the same class as Arnold, Minitrix, and Fleischmann (basically all the top European N scale manufacturers).  IMO, Fleischmann was the best out of the bunch (especially their steam models), but overall all those manufacturers produced good quality European models.  Back then all those models were also made in Germany (Austria for Roco) by very diligent workers.

I'm not too familiar with Roco's U.S. prototype models though.  I know that they made several boxcars for Atlas, RDCs for Con-Cor and FA diesels.   I should revisit Spookshow's site to see what else they made. But other than having lots of wires inside, were they all that bad?  Did they suffer the cracked gear syndrome?  Their construction should have been similar to their German prototype models.

[keeper]

That is true, Roco modles are in the same class as Arnold, Minitrix, and Fleischmann (basically all the top European N scale manufacturers). ...

That is true. You got the same quality but you didn't have to pay as much as for the models of the other three.
Another thing was that they offered models the others didn't. When you look at Arnold, Minitrix or Fleischmann, they all had a lot of the same models. Sure these were very popular ones, e.g. class 01, 103, 110, 140/141, 200, 215/216/218 etc.

Roco models never were that fast. They were too fast as well but not that much like a switcher going 200km/h.

Thomas

[Doug G.]

RoCo made all of the original Atlas freight cars in the sixties-early seventies along with some from Rivarossi.

The beginning of the second generation of Atlas locomotives in about 1973 was heralded by them being made by RoCo instead of Rivarossi and Mehanotehnica.

First was the F9, then the GP30 and GP9. The biggest problem with these was that the brushes were too soft and it didn't take long for the commutator gaps to plug up with brush material, drawing current and stopping. At the least, erratic operation. Oddly enough, after mine sat many years, they now run very well if a bit noisily. It's almost as if the brushes hardened up and quit shedding.

RoCo also made the second version of the Atlas WDT industrial switcher, the saddle tank switcher, and the Davenport switcher, none of which were very good.

Then came the E7 and FA-1, which were better with the E7 perhaps being the best of the bunch. After these, Atlas discontinued all of the RoCo locos and released the now famous Atlas/Katp RS-3 in 1983.

Doug