I have a few of the original Weaver RS3s with the single motor drive. They are wonderful locos, easy to maintain and repair if one of the old original gears break. The replacement gears I get from P&D hobbies have been very good. I model in 2 rail and there is lots of room for DCC decoders and sound speakers inside the body with original drive. I think from the few I have seen, even the larger decoders used for these pittman motors are much smaller that the ones used for the proprietary 3 rail systems.
I think the newer weaver locos with the 2 motor drive are not as good models or as good runners. I have some of the Weaver RS11s with the 2 motor drive and they run fine, but not nearly as smoothly as the single motor drives. Also the two motor drive RS3s appear to sit way too high on the rails and look out of proportion to me. I think they might be as much a scale foot or more too high.
It would be interesting to see LIonle might do with these molds. Their business model seems not really focused on scale models, but more on what will fit their curves and price point aim. That is fine for their business model and their target audience.
