@breezinup posted:I had several of these from the MPC era, and they were wonderful, smooth runners. They have a can motor; it might be fun to convert one of these with a ERR cruise commander installed. That operating backup light was very cool, an unexpected high-end feature found on these little engines.
No. 8516 (1985-86)
I did put a Cruise Commander in one of these DC can-motored 0-4-0's - 2 remote couplers and a backup light, too. No sound. Stock smoke unit works well.
First I put a plain DC Commander in it - ran OK, as the gearing is not half bad. Then I swapped a Cruise Commander into it. It runs well enough, but at very low speeds the motor (no flywheel, and not expensive) gets coggy trying to cruise. The "2 smph crawl" is not really comfortable for it, but, really, is that so often used? It still behaves well.
In either case, the loco is a nice ERR conversion candidate. I always wanted the original 50's version (it had a realistic air about it), but the modern one runs much better.