This! The smaller engines - the 2-6-0s, 2-8-0s, and 4-6-0s of the early 20th century would last till the end of steam in many cases, and handled so much of the work that as modelers we try to depict. The face of American railroading for most folks was a Mogul or Consolidation on a mixed train coming to their town twice a day, not Niagaras and Big Boys.

We need more non-USRA locomotives in general, especially of golden age 4-6-0s. The problem (in the North American market) is that each railroad by and large had different prototypes, making mass production of such models difficult. Bachmann did a decent 10-wheeler a while back and Athern has a consolidation and a mogul. Outside of these examples the best models are brass but that's expensive or difficult to find (or both), but brass isn't ready to run.

Check-out Rapido Canada, they're a high-end plastic manufacturer. They just released this 10 wheeler, in 2022 they released the Royal Hudson, later this year will be later versions of the Hudson's. Also they produce UK rail products in the UK including many OO steam locomotives.

@@geobrower3069 Rapido is a good start, and to be completely fair to BLI they've started producing more and more freight locomotives such as consolidations. The problem for me is locale, since I model the upper Midwestern United States. Though CN and CP did (and do) operate in MN and WI, they aren't necessarily my primary railroads. (That being said I am on the lookout for Rapido's GN USRA boxcars.) If a Rapido D10 went on sale or if I found one at a train show for less than $250 I would absolutely pick one up (assuming I'm financially stable enough to do it lol) I hope that in the next 20 years we begin to see the steam plastic model market in the US look more like Britain's with more regional protoypes of smaller locos in plastic (especially from roads that don't already have modern steamers like the CB & Q, arguably GN and NP, Milwaukee Road, C & NW and even the B & O.)

Smaller steam locos also fit tighter curves making them better suited for smaller model railroads.

I do have to pass the credit for the rollingstock shown in this video to the Northern Virginia Model Railroaders, the club to which I belong and whose layout is featured here. I do agree that dirt and grime on the equipment often completes a scene, and I am working through my own collection to get each car looking its best, whatever level of weathering that may be. Many of those will be seen in future videos.

I had a similar experience with my D10…in fact it’s been with Rapido to correct a few serious factory errors since Dec.22…a huge disappointment…they informed me I was 40th in line waiting for attention!

What crew? Nobody in the locomotive that I could see.

Yeah, let's just say I have found out while making videos exactly why it is frowned upon for engine crew to try to take video/use electronics and run the train at the same time.