Hello, I am currently in my "consumer phase" of collecting locomotives and I have been collecting by roadname (c&o) without a lot of consideration for operating systems, ( a mistake I'm sure). I have two legacy gp-30's, a legacy gp-35, a conventional 0-8-0 from 2006 and a tmcc Allegheny plus an old yellow belly circa 1996? from lionel. I have been considering purchasing a cw-80 first to run my 0-8-0 and to pair as a power source with a future legacy controller that I have not bought yet. I can see in future I will want to add some mth proto-2 rsd and bl-2 units to my roster and I have read from other forums that the cw-80's do not like mth engines (or the mth engines do not like them)? At this point I would only be looking at being able to run mth engines in "conventional mode" as in not being concerned with advanced features on the mth engines at this time. I realize I have a mess of different operating systems now and am just trying to figure out the best power source purchases without making mistakes. Is there a more universal power source that would allow running both lionel and mth engines well or do most people have a few separate transformers/power sources for the different brands? I cant foresee having a large layout anytime soon more like carpet central at Christmas time to start with. Also I am not very electronically tech oriented so my equipment has to be simple/user friendly or I wont be able to manage it. I have no knowledge concerning any MTH systems at this time. Sorry for the rambling question and thanks in advance for any usable advice. Bryan
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