I don't think it's reasonable for a 15 year old plus board to be covered under any kind of warranty or have expectation that they should all work under all conditions and usage. My main inquiry was to gauge the risk and how to approach the buy, which is summed up nicely by several posters. I will go into any of these with the expectation of having to replace.
GRJ, your knowledge is always valued as I know you have quite a bit of experience with this. When looking for electronics info I always pay attention to your posts. Not to take away from many others who post with their experience as well.
MTH and other hobbies like this in general can never know how someone uses their loco and blanket warranty for long periods. Even with MTH diagnostics of time and scale mileage only show so much. Someone could have 10 hours usage with 100 scale miles and that seems good, but if they constantly pulled 12+ car consists up 3% grades several hours per day it's likely more taxing than a loco with 500 scale miles and 80 hours usage pulling a 6 car consist across level grades for an hour per day.
