Lionel's Legacy engines are nice and all but if I had 2 grand to drop it would be on a Brute before a Big Boy all day long.
Absolutely without a doubt not even a contest. Brute all the way... especially that Goliath!!!
That and the accompanying three cars were my "baptism" into Standard Gauge , and I haven't looked back. That LCCA set is a stunning train, so the real trick is to find the Goliath and the matching black cars together.
David