about losing money, you loose money the minute you get into toy trains. You gain pleasure. How deep you go is up to you. I like to enjoy my RRs. They don't have to be perfect. They have to look right and run great.
I just got a MTH CR SD80MAC on order from the catalog in three rail and tore it apart the first night. They didn't offer it RTR in 2 rail. It's here to run. I run two rail. I don't care if someone thinks it lost value. It looks priceless to me.