Lionel's 14251 truck

[alton6]

I guess I missed the catalog that introduced this (new) die-cast truck with spinning bearing caps.  From the picture of it in the current catalog, and from the scale-sized cars it is featured with,  I'm thinking it must be meant to lower the stature of the cars.

Questions:

(1)  Does this truck function successfully?  On par with the Standard-O die-cast truck?

(2)  Does this coupler close the gap between cars more (or less) than the Standard-O truck?

(3)  What o-27 cars, if any, might this truck work with?  How does it look with these cars?

(4)  When did this item first appear?  Which catalog?

Carl