I have seen two copies of this engine operate satisfactorily as is on both Gargraves and Ross Turnouts that were the 100's or larger numbered turnouts . Folks that seemed to have the problem with driver shorting seemed to be running on turnouts with a curve in the design, such as an 072 . I believe it also ran ok on Lionel switches.
As to the rerun question, I was thinking that this locomotive was one that might have been a subject in the MTH-Lionel litigation and settlement of some years past. There was a story about how the parts for this loco were made in Korea and sent to the US for assembly as the litigation got started.
