I was thinking of getting a Beep...

[Anonymous]

and I can not decide on what road name to get. I live in Michigan and have been trying to collect all Michigan and Mid-west road names. I also know they have a Fort Dix Army Beep and my wifes father served at Fort Dix when he was in the army and my brother-in-law and his family now live on that base because he is in the Coast Guard. I am leaning towards the Fort Dix one because of my wifes family history but its just kind of a plane olive green color. Do you think they will be comming out with more mid-west road names in the future. I would love to see an Ann Arbor Rail Road or a DT&I beep. Should I go with the Fort Dix one or wait a bit longer and see what they come out with in the future?

[Anonymous]

also...

This little engine will be perfect on my portable layout but when I move in a few years and get to make a large layout I want it to do my switching duties. Is this engine good for using as a switcher? How do the couplers work with the different types of rolling stock such as lionel, atlas O, Railking, MTH, etc....

My 0-6-0 Dock sider will also share the switching duties in another yard but I have a hard time getting it to couple up the frist time on several brands of rolling stock.

[pennsy_fan]

personally, I would get the fort dix beep because they may or may not come out with the road name your looking for. that way you wont be kicking yourself if it becomes unavailable or hard to find. ( the fort dix beep, that is). I just picked up the lionel reading docksider & I think its a great loco for the money.I do believe I read somewhere that the beep has a traction tire, if so, it ought to be a decent puller, good for switching. However I dont own one myself so Im not sure about that.

[daan]

Why don't you get more than one beep.. They can run in double heading and you don't have to decide on road names that much. They are not that expensive and don't take much space on a layout. These are ideal machines for servicing duties on bigger layouts like the engine for a derailment train with a crane and searchlight..