When I first became involved with 3RO, one thing I wanted was an articulated loco. Having collected a few locos now, and got the general hang of things I’m still scratching my head over this.
Broadly speaking, I’ve arrived at the position where I’m quite happy without the electronic complexity. I’ve got On30 DCC for that. “Post-War, but better” works for me. I haven’t got room for huge curves, but I do (or did, until the present madness put a stop to it) have periodic club running days which DO have big curves, so it’s not a game-stopper. I don’t really want any more semi-scale locos and I’ve become involved with O27.
I like brass locos. I always wanted them when I was a broke teenager using mostly OO gauge rtr stock.
So, I’ve arrived at a short list as follows, partly because of things I’ve seen hanging around on eBay...
1) Williams #3590 brass challenger. This appears to be a scale size loco with basic sound, whistle only. Seems to need big curves?
2) MTH Railking Challenger. Seems to be a semi-scale loco, around 5” shorter than the Williams one. Handles O31 curves easily, but although I like my Imperial spec MTH K4S, I’m not much impressed with the detail on a RailKing loco I got on eBay in a job lot (although it’s a good “toy” loco which I let my granddaughter play with).
3) the K Line “underscale” Big Boy or Challenger. Scale proportions but generally undersized. I’m not unduly concerned over this because I have a good stock of O27 and Traditional sized rolling stock.
Right now I’m tempted by the brass Williams but there don’t seem to be K Line ones available at present. I’m interested in any thoughts or comments anyone might have on this?