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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by bobgrosh TP I agree about the little American 2-4-0. I have a Santa Fe 2-4-0 from a starter set. I sometimes use it to check track work and new rolling stock. Sometimes I leave it running with ten or more cars, day and night. Twice I forgot to shut everything down and returned from a week long business trip to find it still going. I love sitting on the back porch during a heavy rainstorm and watching it run in the rain . It lasted 5 years in heavy use every weekend. I finally wore out a gear in it, but that has finally been replaced and it is as good as new. I have a Southern 2-4-0 with sound also. Unfortunately, a hole in the weight was drilled a little off center. That caused the circuit board to burn out the first day I got it when I turned on the smoke generator, so the Southern 2-4-0 is currently sidelined. I have no doubt that when I get a new board and weight, it will perform as well as the one from the set. Based on the set version, the little 2-4-0 is a strong contender with the old Stainz as far as reliability goes. I do have a dozen or so locos with other brand names on them. They are all relegated to the shelves. I have about 17 LGB locos and from now on it will be only LGB locos for me from now on. But, I might try fitting LGB F7 motor blocks in my Southern Crescent Aristo AB set and a mogul block in an Annie. Now if more people ran the little LGB field locos, maybe we could get LGB to look at the serious engineering boo-boo in that one. I miss the cute little buggers. B0B [/quote] Bob, Enjoyed your comments. When I give my opinion I bet there are probably some who think that, to me, LGB can do no wrong. That is untrue. LGB has made some big no-no's in the past. Even before the China outsourcing, I had passenger cars with shabby paint jobs--and these were bought brand new from retailers. The dual-paint schemes are much more precise now than in the 1980s, there is no bleeding and the liveries (lettering,etc.) is much more prototypical for both Euro and American stock. For the most part with locos and rolling stock, I think LGB is improving in quality. LGB really sat twiddling their thumbs with the advent of a timed-station-stop module for analog users. How many years did I hear people say during the holidays " I need a train to slow down and stop while another one goes" ?? And yet, they still do not offer such a unit for analog users (they offered a timer + contact box in the mid-90s but that has been discontinued for years, and even that was a poor design because it did not have momentum and braking built-in). Also, a dual=reverse loop set that is automated has been sorely missing from the program. LGB shouldn't expect everyone in their 30 year customer base to jump on board the DIGITAL route right away! It is very expensive to convert old locos to digital, much of a hassle too. I think LGB offering pre-installed decoders is great (as long as they are better than the cheesy "Type II" offering!) True, digital offers some hi=tech fun (my most enjoyable feature is the Back-EMF so far) but I don't expect the majority of "veteran LGBers" to go out and convert their extensive loco collection over to the new technology for at least another 10 years. I am one holding out (I have tried the digital route but until I am willing to make a significant (read as :$1200) investment I can pretty much accomplish everything in analog for my modest sized pike). Hmmm...sorry to get off topic! Where was I..oh yes, I was about to say that many LGBers like the portability of LGB (the dreaded "R1" crowd) and I don't see these people wanting to invest in MTS but still wanting to have realistic slow-motion and station stopping options. I really believe there is still a LGB market for analog devices. The irony is, if you have a new LGB decoder-equipped loco and the old discontinued timer-box, you could have realistic braking and momentum stops. But I like my old LGB locos, I won't part with the ones I currently own, and I don't see that as enough reason to "upgrade" to a new version of the same loco (yet, anyway!)..mainly because I know that my older locos on the market won't make enough $$ to buy the replacement! Have fun with that 2-4-0, and I hope you get the other one back working!. Regards, Tom M.
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