It is a real shame that Bowser has chosen to discontinue and destroy all the tooling for the Mantua steamers! (I understand that the tooling is worn out and the cost of replacement probably couldn't be justified by potential sales.) But I have had more good luck with the old Mantua/Tyco steam locomotives than anything else, except maybe the older Athearn blue box diesels! Yes, the Mantua drive trains with the direct drive and open frame motors were not the best. Installation of a gear box, either the cast type that bolts to the frame above the bull gear on the powered driver axle, and that has the worm gear in it, or, when they were available, the late Harold Mellor's stamped brass ones. (Yardbird Classic Trains had a few of the first type, took care of the gearing problems. The next step was to install a can motor. (In my case, most of my locos have Canon 22mm coreless motors...not made anymore.) Of course a decoder and sound for DCC operations would be a plus. But, I've had better luck with these, and kitbashed a bunch of Mikados into 2-10-2's and 2-10-4's, as well as creating a 4-8-4 from their Pacific and a 4-wheel trailing truck. Also I made a great Mountain from parts of the front end of a Pacific and the back of a Mike. I've considered adding DCC and sound, but have heard that the coreless motors can be prone to overheating when operated from a decoder. As I have over 50 locos of various brands that are DC, I can't justify converting the DC equipped ones. I have bought several DCC units, mostly diesels, but don't plan to convert most DC units due to cost.