I certainly agree. Some of my Life Like mechanisms with the plastic frame run so well that I am putting the more recent GP7/9 shells on them. (I also have the LL shells on the Atlas mechanism.)
Yeah but I have found that the plastic-frame units that don't run well REALLY don't haha.... old factory lube becomes chewy if they were never run in..... plus I like the easy MU'ing with all my other (20?) Atlas geeps when I chassis-swap the LL shells on...... and last but not least there's the easier DCC and directional lighting etc. BUT for the few plasticframe locos I have that got broken in closer to their build date? I run 'em all the time and they are champs. Also, the later flywheel Proto re-release runs like a swiss clock, once the wheel black wears off. Better than some of my Atlas/Kato 90's models! LOVE the shell detail again, and they look right at home next to premium locos. Proto is "off tha hook" as they say, looking forward to the day I can afford one of their later articulated steamers! NP had one (as a prototype) that had a coal and an oil tender, test mule as it were.... would be fun to model.... Sorry, offtrack discussion OVER
