If you want museum quality, you can't get better than Micro-Metakit.
Multiple cylinder (i.e. those other than 2 cylinder) locomotives have
working gear, etc. Fine, fine detail.
Some of the Trix Fine Art and early Brawa brass items were manufactured by
Micro-Metakit - Brawa's King Ludwig II's train.
Lemaco is the best of the triumvirate that is located in the Lausanne area
of Switzerland. Metropolitan and Fulgurex are the other two. Metropolitan
is out of business.
DHL, NMJ, Günther, M + F (Merker + Fischer), Westmodel (aka
Bachman-Westmodel), & Gerrard should also not be overlooked.
Several of the manufacturers also had kits of their locos and rolling stock
available. M + F (Merker + Fischer), Günther, Modeloco (pewter instead of
some brass parts), Weinert, Westmodel, & Gerrard are a few examples.
I have probably missed several, but I am sure someone will chime in with
more....

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"I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make
it shorter." - Blaise Pascal among his Provincial Letters (1656-57)
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> Looking for any informed opinions on:
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Sam
Werner G. Pflaum - 21 Apr 2005 12:27 GMT
> Several of the manufacturers also had kits of their locos and rolling
> stock available. M + F (Merker + Fischer), Günther, Modeloco (pewter
> instead of some brass parts), Weinert, Westmodel, & Gerrard are a few
> examples.
I can only repeat what was said about M+F kits many times in
de.rec.modelle.bahn: avoid them! They are supposed to be very unreliable
mechanically and their fit is said to be very bad.
Regards,
Werner George Pflaum
+GF+ - 21 Apr 2005 17:37 GMT
Thanks Werner. That is good to know.

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"I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make
it shorter." - Blaise Pascal among his Provincial Letters (1656-57)
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Greg Procter - 21 Apr 2005 22:37 GMT
> > Several of the manufacturers also had kits of their locos and rolling
> > stock available. M + F (Merker + Fischer), Günther, Modeloco (pewter
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Werner George Pflaum
M&F are at the good end of the spectrum of white metal kits. As such there
is a lot of fitting to be done on every piece because white metal castings
are _not_ dimensionally accurate.
I've built several of their mechanisims and have not been impressed. (Wu K
and Pr S4) The British seem to like the lightweight etched brass fold-up and
solder frames, but I consider them to be too light and fragile for regular
usage. The loose tolerances of a twelve coupled mechanisim are just too much
and their method of getting the fixed wheelbase around curves is horrible.
OTOH a Machima motor and NWSL gearbox is about as good as you get!
Regards,
Greg.P.
samaha@cox.net - 22 Apr 2005 01:53 GMT
Thanks for all the answers Gentleman... The consensus across the
board(s) seems to be Micro-Metakit, so I went and ordered a (02301H)
Bavarian Blue,Black, and Red, S 3/6... I can't wait for it to arrive
now!
Here is a link to a picture of the item.. the dealer was rather
helpful I might add.
http://www.reynaulds.com/micrometakit/mmk02300.html
mark_newton - 29 Apr 2005 09:31 GMT
> Thanks for all the answers Gentleman... The consensus across the
> board(s) seems to be Micro-Metakit, so I went and ordered a (02301H)
> Bavarian Blue,Black, and Red, S 3/6... I can't wait for it to arrive
> now!
>
> Here is a link to a picture of the item.. the dealer was rather
> helpful I might add.
>
> http://www.reynaulds.com/micrometakit/mmk02300.html
>
Am ausgezeichnetesten!