The LionChief + Mikado, Pacific, and Hudsons are fine locos, and while they might be slightly more than Williams or possibly even some MTH, remember that they do also come with their own controller. This should be considered, since you like to hand over the controls to kids at a show, which could be hard to do with Williams, and as you mention, could be costly with MTH, since MTH controllers are both more fragile and expensive.
Bill in FtL
