Going back to the original question where it seems someone is coming new into the hobby apparently without a large quantity of locomotives the answers may best be from that prospective.
In response to that position I would suggest to at least try one battery remote control system.
GRJ having 100+ engines is understandably a no go. Even having the finances it would not be a prudent expenditure.
My back ground is one where I had 62 DC engines just b/4 DCC became popular. I did not see the wisdom of converting to a system that still was experiencing a series of burned boards at X $$$ per unit.
I sold most of my DC off and picked up a few early DCS PS-1 units, then little by little more PS locos found a warm home here.
Then I started on a too large of a layout and saw the need to purchase 500' rolls of wire in two different gauges and 12 different colors along with a couple of under layout creepers. It was in the midst of this insanity that I obtained my first BPRC 0 scale unit. WOW! I suddenly felt foolish. However, like the Westward traveler in the 1800's, my wagon wheels were in a rut that I had dug.
I trudged on to most of my track power needs but only purchased BPRC from that point forward or picked up DC engines for conversion.
I say all this to say if I was to start over with few or no locos I would only go battery powered R/C. Period.
The nay sayers speak of short life and dead batteries. That has never been my experience. My first BPRC unit is still running with its 15 year old battery. With a host of battery engines and average layout running I go many weeks between charging them. Most of us do not have a department store display layout where you let one loco run all day long , so in reality battery charging is only an occasional activity, at least for me.
