When I was a teen ager my father always went to one hobby shop on Lombard IL. The owner for some reason must have watched what I was looking at. Three times he just gave me a steam engine. One was a Pennline TI that a customer gave up on another was a GG1 Pennline this was before Bowser , it was another one a customer brought in gave up on. I loved the odd loco's , they stood out . I managed to get them both running well yet my father didn't like the odd ball loco's. All I can recall is my father took them back and the owner was impressed I could get them together and run. The owner then gave me a Varney Old Lady fixed that one too. It was another my father for some reason didn't like and it too ended up back at the train shop. He liked the Pennline Pacific and many others.
Many year's later Rivorossi came out and were always on sale after Christmas , he bought many of those , I felt the cab forward was ugly and the others were great. They were designed in a way that all wheels were flanged yet had enough side play that they could handle 18" radius. The only issue were the tall flanges with standard code rail. The IHB 080 at the time had the motor in the tender. I found one in the late 80's in a small shop in Burbank CA that had fallen in the front of the display case and it had a broken front boiler so they sold it to me cheap and it was an easy fix plus NWSL had a re gear kit , mine had the motor in the boiler. It turned out to be a great runner. I think it still used the stock three pole motor , can't recall.
In 1990 when he passed my younger sister got most of what he had not sold yet when they shipped it UPS had it floating around lost for close to 9 months and they didn't pack them well. They well all Rivorossi . A big boy, two Berkshires , a Challenger (my favorite) and one other can't recall and of course the cab forward and it was the only one broken , the one set of drivers had a broken mount so I repaired it.
I kept them for a few years and then got into Roco electrics and back then on train shop always did trades even traded my 080 and three Mantua 2- 6-6-2 that I detailed and custom painted and re powered can motors and drive shafts instead of the tubing.
I was really into steam at that point yet later went back to American diesels EMD , Alco and Baldwin & Fairbanks Morse. And of course the odd ball Alco/EMD and Baldwin EMD rebuilds which one day I may be able to build one of each again , Maybe. Wish I hadn't sold the ones I built.