Jeff, I am going to take exception with your choice of words. Terms like "junk" and "garbage" get tossed about quite pretty freely on this forum and usually in reference to either MPC period trains or starter sorts of products.
I had a relative who said "junk" was something you paid too much for and also didn't work as it was advertised to do. By that definition, there are an awful lot of high end, advanced and scale products that fit that description perfectly. We read about them here all the time. One might be tempted to call the recent Lionel Moguls garbage, though they were certainly nicer looking engines than these referenced 2-4-0's. But digital features, scale proportions and added details does not necessarily equate to "value."
Look, I'm not arguing that the topic engine here is certainly a low-end product. They were intended as such. But as a long time buyer of such products, I can say that I've never had one not work out of the box nor have I paid too much for one. And to this day, they all still function.
One could also make the case that the newer Dockside and 0-8-0 Lionel starter set steamers are much nicer looking engines with more functions. One can also make the case that the worm gear DC motors in these two engines are much smaller and do not have the same longevity. The motor and the frame in the early release Dockside locos are now already obsolete parts: If you need a new motor, you're going to need a new $85.00 frame to go with it. Never mind many other more advanced higher end products that also now have either obsolete parts or simply have no parts made available anymore.
The DC can motors in these plastic starter steamers that are the topic here, are the same ones used in the heavier small die-cast steam engines made by Lionel, so you are safe to add some weight to inside the chassis, which I do to all of mine. It is a very common motor.
Since I have the option of running my layout on DC current, I add weight to these engines and don't worry about a circuit board reverse unit. The plastic bodies make alterations much easier than die-cast and details are easily added. And there's certainly already an acceptable amount of cast in detail on these low cost, low-end starter locomotives that can be highlighted with paint, as you have done with yours and which I also did with one of many that I have, shown below.
I replaced the original pullmor motor frame with the manual reverse, to a common DC motor frame, which also fits the same shell. Again, since I can run my layout on DC, forward and reverse are no problem. With the added weight, this loco can pull a quite a train.
Jeff, you did a splendid job improving the visual appearance of your locomotive. Personally I would never have added ANY digital control system to a locomotive. I've read too complaints that the MTH system is total garbage... but is it?? Would you call it garbage? Others do though. I know a guy who purchase an MTH starter set and it was dead right out of the box. He was not happy and now calls their products junk and garbage. But are they???
Sure, many current trains have digital and mechanical features you won't find on a low-end product. But of what use are they if they don't work? My trains do everything the high end trains do... in my imagination!
There's an old saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. I guess how you choose to see that is based upon your own personal perspective. But in 32 years now of buying starter types of trains, I've never once had a DOA or any other major quality problem, so I guess I would have to give Lionel a 100% rating on out-of-the box quality. Again, you don't have to read for very long on this forum to find others who would angrily take issue with that score.
