John sent in an email stressing the importance of buying a good quality loco. He said  “I’ve always bought Atlas products and find that they last. I have one Walthers engine, an RS-2 in N that runs pretty good, and I’ve never tried Intermountain, Kato, or Athearn. But Bachmann, Spectrum, Life-Like, Model Power, etc. Buy quality especially if you only run trains once in awhile, because it seems that the more they sit, the worse-running they get.”

Thanks John for your thoughts.