Been out for a while, started back again 5 to 8 years ago had to put it on hold agin. Now the time may be right.
So:
How about a rundown of loco makers?
I bought an Athearn Genesis Mikado. Wow!
Than I looked at another older Mikado a Mehano in another brand's box and instead of a backhead when I lloked in the cab I saw, a can motor? I expected this on a smaller 0-4-0T I have but on a larger engine?. I can live with a lot, external detail can be soft or missing - scale distance reduces what you see anyway (as a military modeller you realize that aircraft panel lines aren't visible at actual viewing distances) - or I can fix what I think is missing. But no backhead, but rather the can motor in the cab. I actually had a backhead I could have copied in resin but there just isn't enough room.
Presumably newer steam engines won't have this problem, or will they? Can anyone give a general guide to this situtation. Opinions on different makers and maybe different lines in each.
I saw bacjmann had FT A/B combos and I found a really good price on them with a DCC decoder inside (not a great issue as I'm not commited to DCC, yet!, but still) and Walthers has Proto F3 a/b powerd combos for $62. Are these good units?
Is there maybe a review site where these compariosns are made for HO? I found a site with reviews of N scale engines that was pretty well done. And plastic moderls have plenty of review sites.
Anything for HO engines? And it's not like I haven't googled either, I have several times with differing keywords.
Thanks in advance
Frank