Phil,
As promised, here's a couple of photo's of an American Models USRA 4-6-2 dressed up a little:
I'm not Joe Uber-modeler, but I do like to improve things. The model is straight DC. DCC will come one of these days.
Parts came from a variety of sources, including from some companies unfortunately no longer with us and a couple of scratch items. I tend to buy steam locomotive parts when I see them, whether I need them or not.
I can tell you, that if the loco wasn't a good runner, I wouldn't have gone through the trouble.
I've found that even with the basic model, painting the rims and driver axle ends black immediately improves the looks.
You mentioned moderate price, well detailed steam. The scale wheeled SHS 2-8-0 with DCC/sound MSRP'd for $525.00. They occasionally show up on the secondary market and MTH will likely re-release it:
It's based on a B&O consol and is a good runner also. My only real complaint with it is SHS used a dark gray/grimy black finish instead of black. But that's just my opinion.
Rusty.
