Not sure where the idea is coming from that there are no builder's plates. My Southern has them and from the picture above so does the UP version.
I also think getting angry over the class lights/headlight/etc is a little ridiculous. The engines match the catalog images. Plus changing the tooling to get the details correct on every road name would be impractical and too expensive. It would seem the model matches the UP engine and Lionel used it to offer us a "close" model of the other road names. I'd rather have this than nothing at all.
I think it is a fun and fantastic engine. Just typical guys getting angry over small details. Always laughable. In the meantime I'll be over here modifying the details as that's what you do in "model railroading".
