Some of them indeed are fine runners, at least with a good back-emf decoders. My friend has many small N scale steamers on his turn of the century layout, some he uses the superstructure as a basis and builds a new mechanism to make a different loco, especially Camelbacks, but ends up powering them with the same motor - often relocated to the tender. Not everything the builds gets a nice Kato motor. Cheap Arnold 3-pole motors are quite capable of running at slow realistic speeds, and do so smoothly. He has one, maybe two Model Power 4-4-0's that are stock and they run just fine. Far better than any of the N scale junk I had back in the late 70's, that's for sure.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I had heard the newer MP N scale steamers were really good locos??? At $150 I wouldn't call them low cost. All wheel pick up. I have no personal experience with these since I'm HO, but I'm just surprised to hear Daves opinion of them. It's the first negative comment I've heard about them.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mdp/mdp7590.htm?source=froogle