Mth triplex engines,imperial vs. Premier

I have the original, PS2 3-volt, RK Imperial Triplex and find it to be highly detailed and a fine performer. It looks and runs great on my O54 and O42 main lines, and through my Ross and Gargraves turnouts.

Even with a single motor, the engine's 3rd power truck  still looks real. The biggest difference is the lack of a second smoke unit in the tender.

My LHS has the newest RK Imperial version on their store layout and also on display. It's a very nice engine, nice detailing, looks great. I have not seen the Premier version, my LHS doesn't have that version, so I can't compare the two.

Sigh, that room is about the size of my whole house.  But to the questions.  The Premier is scale, Imperial is not.  The Premier also has a smoke unit for the tender stack whereas the Imperial doesn't.  I also believe the Premier has a smaller gap between the tender and locomotive.  And from Eric's review, the Premier is more like one giant tank locomotive, where as the Imperial is more like a standard steamer where the locomotive and tender easily separable.

usually one of the big differences are the detail  work on the premier engine vs the Imperial, is the difference in money worth it to you or not, I bought the  mth Imperial set with if I remember 4 or 5 hopper cars and a caboose which was I then the believe around $800.00 or so the premier triplex engine alone cost much more then that I think the Premier engine alone is around $1500.00 but don't holds me to that!

triplex premier cost 20-3611-1  1499.00 engine only 

triplex Imperial set 30-1647-1   800.00 engine and car set

Alan