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I'd say its a tie between the Lionel 0-4-0 Shifters and the Legacy Southern Crescent.  All three (I have two Shifters) run very smoothly and with a ZW-L down to about 12-15 mph in conventional (all I run).  Thye respond linearly to throttle, have exceedingly good sound (particularly for their size - all three are small) and pull extremely well.  The nod would go to the Southern Crescent because it has cruise which works intuitively and perfectly, but its a tie because the Shifters fit tighter curves and look better on the O-36 (which the Screscent will fit and run on). 

I don't own expensive locos"  my best is my modified Williams BL2.  LED headlights, series wiring, diodes, thermistors, and a MRC sound system (surprisingly loud using the Williams original speaker).  Runs slow, very smooth, great startup: as the thermistors warm up, the sound first comes on, then a few seconds later very slow acceleration with the diesel RPM increasing.

Originally Posted by VaGolfer1950:

My best is the first release of the MTH N&W Imperial Y6B. It has not been off the track other then for routine maintenance since purchased. Last time  I checked a couple of months ago the readings were high, over 1200 hrs in 5 years.

My Imperial Y6B (from the specialty set with the cars and caboose from 2010) is easily my favorite steamer, if not my favorite engine all around however I don't really run it that much and I have not had any issue with it. 

 

My all time reliable engine is my little dinky MTH Rugged Rails F3, the super short starter set version. I got it in 2004 or 2005 in the B&O F3 Freight set. Came with engine, boxcar, tank car, caboose, and a loop of track and tranny. It has over 4,000 scale miles on it and other than having to replace one pickup roller, I've never had an issue with it. A FANTASTIC little engine. It has the full PS2 package and has pulled massive trains and short trains and run like a champ. It is far from scale but it's got all the features and runs great. 

 

 For me it's my Rock Island GP7 with Legacy. The smoothest, slowest crawler I've ever had! Smokes like it's on fire and the sounds are top notch!

+ 1

 

Especially since I love to drill cars in a yard, like Jeff's ... my Legacy GP-7 is really great. I run it all the time.

 

I keep thinking of buying another, and repainting them into my own RR.

Jim

Glad we hit on a positive note.  For me it would be a toss-up between my Lionel Legacy Milw Rd S-3 (once I had the initial bugs resolved) and my trusty Atlas C&NW 0-6-0.  That engine, even without Legacy is the slowest, smoothest starting, nicest sounding engine before Legacy came along.

 

Paul Fischer

This, and the thread on problem locos, are both very interesting, particularly when taken together.  I love this type of discussion and information. There are a great variety of locos mentioned here with no clear pattern I could see, although the Vision Hudson got more mention than others - but still only about 10% mentioned it.  Among problem locos there was again a large number of different locos mentioned, but I think the Lionel UP 9000 was singled out most often - maybe because I kicked off the thread with that, but definately it is a fussy loco to run.  Finally, unless I missed something, the only loco mentioned in both lists is the MTH SD70Ace.

I don't have any locos newer than 5 or 6 years old, but with a variety of more than two dozen steam, diesel, and a GG-1, from all manufacturers (except 3rd Rail), I must call it a TIE among 10 Williams diesels -- they all run great with ultra reliabilty!  And most of them are converted to TMCC with cruise control.

          paul m.

@magoo and artyoung:

 

A Lionel 520 was my first Lionel loco (back in 1956); it wasn't my favorite runner, but it wasn't bad.

By a coincidence, I just spruced up my 2025 this morning--pulls 18 cars with sprung trucks on 027 track with no problem.  Just maybe not quiiiite as good a runner as the B6 of 1990 vintage . . .

I have to say that what is in my current inventory all runs very well. Hard to pick just one, but I really like the looks and overall performance of my Lionel F3 Alaska set (ABBA) with the matching hi-level passenger cars. The powered units in the Alaska set have several hours on them and they have always run like a champ. I think our esteemed Editor just got a set of these and I am sure he will like his as well.

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