Hi there! I currently have 7 locomotives in my fleet; 4 LionChief and 3 LionChief Plus. Personally, I think they're fantastic engines for the value. I have a smaller, DC-powered layout with no plans to build another layout with AC power at this time, so I have no personal experience with Legacy.
Of my three LionChief Plus engines, I have one steam engine (Santa Fe Hudson #3450) and two diesel engines (Santa Fe GP-38 #3441 and Nickel Plate Road NW2 #13). My steam engine is the oldest of the three with no Bluetooth while my two diesels are newer with Bluetooth compatibility. I've had to send the Hudson and GP-38 back to Lionel for warranty repairs - the Hudson's speaker went out in the tender, and the smoke unit quit working on the GP-38. Lionel took great care of my engines, and so far, they've been running great. I've yet to have any problems with my NW2 Nickel Plate Diesel - that one might be my smoothest running engine overall. However, in top shape, all three engines run incredibly well, so I can't really say the steam engine runs better than the diesels.
That all said, I have two LC+ 2.0 engines on preorder that I am extremely antsy to recieve; the Nickel Plate Road #765 Berkshire and the Santa Fe #95 0-6-0T Docksider steam engines. Personally, I'm taking a leap of faith with these engines by preordering them having never heard their true sounds (other than early demo prototypes in early 2019) and seeing their features on full display (I've actually written to Lionel kindly asking that they put demo/preview videos of the finished products/prototypes on their FB page as there are many, many folks anxiously awaiting these new engines). What intrigues me about the LC+ 2.0 steam engines is that they supposedly will sound more realistic having 4 chuffs per revolution rather than two/rev on the older LC+ engines or one/rev on the LionChief starter set engines. According to one of the "Ryan and Dave Show" clips on Lionel's FB page, the sounds on both the LC+ 2.0 steam and diesel engines will supposedly rival those of Legacy, all while being packed into a semi-scale engine.
I've seen clips of the new LC+ 2.0 Big Boys and the LC+ 2.0 SD80/90 MACS diesels - WOW! I personally thought each of those engines sounded incredible, and if that's the kind of quality that will be placed into the LC+ 2.0 Berks, FT diesels, Tier 4 diesels, and others, they will be worth the wait. I know there are a lot of folks here in the forum who have had LC+ 2.0 preorders placed since January 2019....
Hope this information helps! Overall, I think you get excellent semi-scale/traditional-sized engines for the price with LionChief Plus.
