I have to say, if you want an A5, K-line built some amazing TMCC Railsound equipped versions of that and can be picked up for a song- no conversion required. The thing to keep in mind, an ERR control board (AC or DC) is about $90-$100 shipped, cruise is more, then sounds another $80 on top of that. Realistically, I would budget $200-$250 in just components and assign a value to my time to do the conversion. I bought a brand new in the box A5 with TMCC for $125 at the local spring show. Point being, if you have an engine that you just love and have an investment in- maybe it makes sense, otherwise, there are just some known good engines- probably fits the bill, can be had for a fraction of the cost and effort of a conversion. I don't want to take anything away from custom or "upgraded" engines, I've done quite a few myself. Even better, get yourself one of these highly common MTH engines as a baseline, and being a can motor ideal for a slow speed fine control switcher. Not to mention, there are sales of Lionel Lionchief Plus A5s at nearly every dealer before the newer Lionchief Plus 2.0 series ships much later this year or next year. Again, love my little A5, one of my favorite engines due to it's smooth and controllable slow speed yard operation, electrocouplers at both ends, good railsounds, nice looks and reasonable price. #913 is TMCC Railsounds, the #94 by default is conventional but can be upgraded by plugging in the boards. I also should note, I first got a little carried away, immediately went for a modular ERR Cruise upgrade in my A5 to give it cruise, but the truth was, it was so smooth and geared right for yard work anyway, the Cruise control and extra cost was not required and I swapped back to just a normal DCDR and moved the ERR cruise to an engine that needed it much more for the mainline. So again, out of the box, I find the A5 perfect, and my quest to make it even better had me end up just returning it to box stock- that's how good it is.
