I'm trying to decide if I should order one of the new Lionel Legacy Moguls. I've wanted Lionel to make one, and was really glad to see them listed, but then was put out by the road names. Of late there seems to be a serious lack of ATSF steamers from Lionel. But that is a different topic. The main reason I am weary of getting one is how disappointed I was with the recent Consolidation. It looked so great in the catalog, and it looks good on the layout, from a distance, but once I started playing with it, it felt more like a cheaper locomotive. The big thing for me was the lack of front coupler. All my other Legacy scale steamers to this point had a usable front coupler, the Big Boy, heavy Mikado, and ten-wheeler, so I was expecting the same. I double head a lot and since I have the SP ten-wheeler I got the SP Consolidation so I could use it in pusher service for the ten-wheeler's passenger service, or have the ten-wheeler help be at the head of the Consolidation's freight train to help it get going. But all those plans were killed due to the lack of a front coupler.
Anywho, long post short, I know Lionel likes reusing tooling, and they've done Moguls in the past. Did the last release of the Mogul by Lionel have a usable front coupler you could swap with the fake "scale" one, or does it just have the fake one permanently installed?
