didn't realized I missed mentioning that at first but I probably should had mentioned I was looking at the more current MTH offerings (but it does appear that I'll be getting into the 2600 series wagons alone)
happy pappy and PCR, thanks for mentioning that. I had actually been privately wondering for awhile about the 260/263E indeed having a more beefy looking boiler beside different trim mount origins compared to the 216E/262E