I've just got myself a Bachmann Toby and it's quite a nice runner. I think it has double reduction gearing and is fairly quiet. It makes a nice clicking sound as it goes over the rail joints and unlike Hornby's offering seems to be relatively in keeping with other OO rolling stock. It's not that heavy, so it doesn't pull a lot and the cow catcher doesn't go over tension lock uncoupling ramps, but the cow catcher can be cut back a bit and it wasn't designed to be a heavy freight loco.
If the face was removed and doors and windows cut out it would make a nice tram loco and would bear a passing resemblance to an LNER J70. The openings would have to be disguised to hide the mechanism with crew, waist height doors and dirty glass. Unfortunately you can't buy them from shops in the UK, but you can get them via Ebay for around GBP 25.