Which Freight Engine TO Buy

More likely you'll find a decent diesel for that price rather than a steam engine if you choose Lionel, but MTH RailKing steamers could fit the price range, at least in current product lines.

I have a couple of scale SD40-2's from Lionel that I got for $400 each that have Legacy, but work just fine in conventional mode.

Do you want steam or diesel? Will you EVER go to command control? Do you want new or used?

If I were to buy a conventional only loco, I'd look at a MTH Protosounds (PS1)  or Railking Scale (PS1, 2, or 3). You can find these for under $450. A new Railking scale diesel should be $250-300 street price. Check some of the OGR advertisers or put your wishlist on the WTB forum.

Oh yea, they run very slow and smoothly, too.

Dave G.

I should have said I want a steam engine. I saw the MTH 30-1579-1 mountain and it looked great. I thought the mogul would make a better fit. Wally

You might look for a MTH 2-8-0 starter set loco that will be under $200 and have PS2 or 3 and has Command control, but it will run GREAT in conventional. FYI, the electronics alone are worth $150. Dave G.

Like Dave said, a Railking 2-8-0 would be nice, like 30-1159-1.

Maybe a set like 30-4208-1, a bit more than you want to spend but it has a lot of stuff.

No, it is the one and only Lionel loco (our of about 50) that I had really bad luck with. It would not run smoothly, slowly, and I hate it when that happens.

My Mogul runs really nice and slow now: I took it apart and removed the chassis and pitched in in my spare parts/project box, then mounted the loco casting and all on the chassis/motor/driver set from a WBB Baldwin ten-wheeler, keeping the Lionel tender of course, and sound boards, etc..  Looks better than the WBB loco and runs better than the Lionel did.  

The Legacy Berkshire is really nice, by the way.