Really? At the time the Berk was first produced one could easily buy an 8000- series motor directly from Pittman in quantity for under $30. I was getting prices like that for quantities of 20. Difficult to see how they could save $100 by replacing a $30 motor with one for three bucks.
But that cannot be the reason for mounting the motor in the cylinder block and making a U-shaped boiler. That has to be chalked up to bone-headed design team efforts.
The delta between the cost of the motors is about $25, give or take a buck or two. Typically, in consumer products companies where the vast portion of their sales is via third-party retailers, that equates to a $100 retail price difference.
As for the forward mounting, and this is just a guess on my part, but it might have had to do with using an existing Lionel motherboard for the locomotive electronics. It's possible it wouldn't have fit if located above the front drivers.
TRW
