Hello mrspock I started in the hobby about four years ago when I went to a local train store and there was a john deere mth steam train runing with the proto sound 2.0 me and my son were in awe with it we had to have it runs great were runing it for 4 years now we also have a few mth diesel engiens and a few more steam locomotives the newest being the blue comet i'm also runing there dcs system I hope this helps you i have a post on here if you do a search for it called my son's room there are a few pictures in that post of his room with the john deere train runing around his bed room good luck
I assume mrspock is asking about HP locos, I haven't heard anything about them, are they out now? As I recall, their first offering was a Pennsy pacific, right?
Their O scale things are good. They produce them in "027", semi-scale, and scale.
I have had their HO K4, smoker, on order for at least six months, I figure they can drop it in my casket. I would expect it to be an acceptable model.