I have an older Stewart F7 unit with a Kato drive. I recently did some servicing on the unit and after I reassembled the unit, I could hear a chugging noise coming from it (assuming it's an issue with one of the gear boxes). I took it apart again and ran it without the shell after inspecting the mechanism (didn't see anything wrong with the mechanism. Motor runs fine) and the noise was still present along with the unit slowing down slightly on one of my curves (22" radius) after minutes of running.

This is and was a all metal kit made by Thomas Trains. It's a mostly accurate car. There were two single compartment and at least one two compartment car. The only parts I kept was the tank, ends and manway. I scratched the top platform. I used the Athearn 40' tank car frame that I plumbed and detailed. Thanks for looking!

This is a Brass engines I bought this year thru an auction. It ran ok on DC but the old open frame motor was noisy. I installed a new can motor and it ran like a watch. I then pulled it all down to bare frame to add lights and for paint. I installed a TSC decoder, added glass and some coal. wating on some decals and I will lightly weather and call it done.  This is a 1970s era PFM model.

Does anyone have experience with the HO Bachmann Alco S2 with DCC and sound?  I noticed Train World has them on sale for less than $100, but I'm concerned because I've not had good experiences with Bachmann stuff recently.  I bought a couple GE 44-ton switchers in November, and the decoder in one died suddenly (still runs in DC though), while the other runs very poorly.

I wondering about reliability and quality of both decoder and sound.

Thanks in advance!