I appreciate all the unique opinions. Just to assure everyone, I am having fun, part of which is the interaction with other modelers, learning what others have done in the past and the research of the prototype. For this particular project, I’ll be going with fantasy numbers. That is unless a cost effective, dcc, Milwaukee Road s2 in HO shows up before I pant the S1s!
Mark
It has only been relatively recently that I have had a choice of accurate plastic models that I could use for my Southern based layout. So for the years prior to this I had to decide if a locomotive could be turned into a SRR engine easily. So you could say I’ve been using standins for years.
Even long time SRR modelers were “fooled” with some. So I say go ahead and do want you want. I seriously doubt that anyone will really notice.