@Randy Harrison HI Randy and all, I would not say I had a bad experience with the the Weaver M1a mountain steamer. A couple of screws loosened up and I have to re-attach. A little more painful than an MTH diesel, but I am not expecting anything major. On the other hand if the brass solder joints were coming apart that would be a different matter.
There are a few Weaver GG1s available right now. Kind of curious if you were to buy just one GG1 for your layout which one would you choose, but has to be scale proportions, the more detailed the better (to a point). Weaver brass, MTH Premier, 3rd Rail, Lionel? (not a Lionel guy so I have zero familiarity with their engines. Have seen the arcing catenaries - that is pretty cool). I have always wanted a GG1 since I was a kid. Bought a RailKing version - but its just not right with the shortened body : (
BTW I am thinking about dipping into ERR for this engine and a couple of trolleys and interurbans.
@ScoutingDad:
I am glad to hear that you consider the loose screws a manageable problem and that the rest of your Weaber brass experience has been good. I have been watching Ebay and many GG-1s have come up for sale at reasonable prices. I have an MTH, Premier, Scale GG-1 that I use to run on my club's layout. It is an older one that came out before ProtoSound was created. Therefore, it was conventional control. I had the late, Wayne Renga, the patent holder of the Battery Component Replacement (BCR) upgrade it to ProtoSound 2 to operate it with the MTH Digital Command System DCS. Though I don't have a good side shot of the engine, photos of it running are below.
I am a Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) junky! My maternal grandfather was a 42 year man on the Pennsylvania Railroad and took me, beginning at the age of 3, on many train trips up and down the electrified PRR Northeast Corridor from Washington DC to New York and out to Harrisburg, PA after his retirement in 1953. Consequently, I have ridden behind and seen many GG-1s up close. I find that the detail on a GG-1's body and trucks can be sufficiently captured in a plastic body. For outward appearance sake, I like the MTH locomotive as much as I do the Weaver GG-1 and MTH now comes with ProtoSound 3 with a GREAT sound package and remote control capability. IMHO brass models of Diesels and electric locomotives do not buy you as much as brass does with steam due to all of the steam's exposed piping, and other parts attached visibly to the outside body of a steam engine. Also, if you want to convert Weaver to MTH ProtoSound, the process is very tedious and costly as I mentioned in my previous post. Lionel and MTH make superb scale GG-1s. I prefer MTH due to the quality and the fact that they have been traditionally a lower price point than Lionel. If you run conventionally with no aspirations of future remote control, Weaver is a good choice because of the current prices they are bringing. I have also included a photo of my PRR 4-6-0 brass engine. Click on the photo to enlarge it and you may be able to see the applied piping and other details.
I hope my "dissertation" has not confused you and is helpful in your decision process.