Re: any good brass?

As a "poor college student", I would recommend the Sunset locomotives. I have a K-27 and K-28. They will run smoothly at prototypical speeds after some work.
Both have had problems with the gear box shorting out on the frame, but this has been solved with some Kadee washers fitted around the driving axles. The wire that runs the length of the draw bar to the tender is too stiff and probably needs to be replaced. Some of the threads for the screws that hold the side rods onto the counter weights of K-27 were not tapped straight. This causes a slight binding problem, but this appears to go away after the mechanism is broken in. I also used paper underneath the can motor to improve the mechanism.
I used code 70 rail with no problems.
Cameron