If you don't want to spend any effort and want a PRR steam loco that looks, runs, and sounds great, get the latest item from Broadway Limited. They are excellent.

If you must insist on brass and don't mind beating yourself up, try converting it to DCC.

I have acquired several brass locos - they look good but run "meh" or not at all. I decided to learn and experiment on two PRR 2-8-0s. They received DCC decoders, all-wheel pickup on the loco and tender, LED lighting, reworked mechanisms, and stuffed with as much weight as possible, about 2 additional ounces in each.

No. 7683 looks fresh out of the shop. I fitted a simple Digitrax 126 no-sound decoder into the boiler and strung 2 wires to the tender for rail pickup. The can motor failed and was replaced.  It moved smoothly before and after I worked on it - this is not always true.  That conversion was  deceptively easy, I was not prepared for the difficulties of the next loco...

No. 592 is weathered to resemble months of honest work on short lines and shifter duty. The decoder is a TCS WOW sound V4 with keep-alive.  With all-wheel pickup and the keep-alive capacitors it runs smoothly over some really dirty track.  I was surprised when Fireman Fred kept shoveling after I picked it off the rails. Every step of this conversion was difficult - I spent three weeks of evenings and must have disassembled the running gear about 5 times before fixing all the problems. Sheesh.

They still need finishing touches like glass in the cab windows, a red cab roof instead of black, and just a touch of coal dust on the shiny one.  For now, they are happy on the daily milk run or double-heading a tourist excursion.

7683 

592