I remember a lot of the locos you mention.

The Atlas Rivarossi stuff like the steam, the E8, and the Fairbanks Morse C-liner, had dreadfully fragile motors. Then their Alco roadswitcher, GP40, and SD45 were just flimsy, some Yugoslav company made those?

AHM locos weren't worth a first look, let alone a second.

Con-Cor's PA was the benchmark, as were the Minitrix range. The Arnold-Rapido ran well and were robust, too.

Things started to change when Kato (who made that PA) started in with some other importers like Atlas, then under their own label.

The only domestic US range was the Kadee Microtrain range of freightcars. Theirs were a big improvement over the earlier stuff.

Oddly, I remember some of the passenger stock in that early era being really first-rate, especially for their time. Con-Cor and MRC were top of the heap then...

Meanwhile, the continental European, especially the German stuff, was really quite impressive in those days. Fleischman, Trix, and Rapido did tons of DB stuff and I really liked it. UK models were more on par with the American offerings, likewise behind the Germans.

I haven't looked at it since the 1980s, so no idea what's hot today.

Yeah, this is dangerous ground. GRIN!