Just got one in and have been test running it on the club layout. Overall it's a very nice model of the UP Veranda. With the sound turned off the drive system is very quiet and smooth running. Ran it from a "is it moving" crawl to full throttle. Handled a max 60 car grain train of centerflow hoppers weighted to recomended NMRA wt. This was on a long 1.5% uphill grade. Appearance is good. The paint and lettering were nicely done. I'll eventually add some light weathering after repainting the side frames (color doesn't look "right" to me). The QSI sound / decoder system worked exceptionally well. If you hit function 7 from a zero throttle you shift from hostler diesel to turbine. With the diesel enabled you will find that the engine will only move slowly even at max throttle. This is correct as per the prototype. Switching to turbine this really sounds awesome. Overall there are something like 10 different sounds including dynamic braking. The lights are excellent. You have mars light, headlights, tender light, rear engine light, and number boards. There are various modes to operate these depending on functions enabled. I will turn down the sound as every manufacturer seems to want to overwhelm you. I find subtle works much better and have done this for years on the shop layout. Overall I'll admit I generally hate Lionel (matter of fact I dropped them out of my shop inventory) but was surprised to find they actually did a decent model. More so when they actually have Kadees installed. My previous Veranda was an old Soho model I painted years ago. Someone mentioned that this model was a piece of junk. As only one person had stated so I let it arrive to see for myself. I glad I did as I'm keeping it for myself (it's good to own the shop ) to run. Will likely test this out with a Proto2000 GP to see how well I can match these. Probably will have to adjust the speed CV's accordongly.
Dave