Thanks Carl and John!
I will indeed be running fastrack. This is all for floor fiddling now, so no serious wiring complications that a permanent layout would have. In fact, i could even swap wires from system to system as I swap locomotives if I wanted, its only 2-3 wires per setup
Permanent layout is years off so I'm safe for now.
John- VERY handy info on the 2.0 locomotives as well. I guess there is a reason they look appealing used when compared with lionel. I'll need to research my models before any purchases