SCALE RAIL said:
"Andre, I wanted the Erie A-A set so bad when I was a kid. <snip: interesting childhood anecdote>"
As you saw above, I fully understand your infatuation with them!
I'm a bit of an oddity: I didn't have Lionel as a kid. I was fortunate to be able to play with a friend of mine that did have Lionel. (Said friend's dad was a railroader for the Rock Island and kept son Lee in toy trains!) And I was able to have a TON of fun alongside him.
Make no mistake: I wanted a Lionel set, but it fell to HO to get me into the hobby. Yes, I do have fond memories and feelings of nostalgia for the Lindberg Line in HO, which set mine was. I even have a nice collection of Lindberg Lines products to fuel my memories and nostalgia... BUT...
I would never in a million years use vintage Lindberg Lines engines to power a nostalgia HO layout. Simply put, there are MUCH better options now for HO. (The little Lindberg Lines engines run like crap to me now.)
HOWEVER... when I think of the possibility of dabbling with O scale, I think only of 3-rail and within that only of PW and "traditional" sized trains. Go figure!
INHO, once cleaned and serviced, nice examples of PW trains run pretty stinkin' good "as is".
IF I knew I could be okay with the operational limitations of PW, (they're kind of high on start speeds and don't run as steadily at slow speeds/etc) it would be even more tempting to consider PW as a viable adjunct to my HO modeling. (For those times I simply want to play trains and not do tedious work/etc in HO.)
Andre
