Hi Geoff! I haven't purchased any Bachmann rolling stock, but have purchased several off the G scale steamers, specifically 2 and 3 truck Shays, a Climax and a Heisler, and have experienced no quality issues to date. Like so many others, I'm having problems installing decoders, but mostly due to my ignorance. I purchased the 3 truck Shay with a Tsunamis sound system installed, and it ran on DCC right out of the box. I haven't looked into the tender to see why I did not have to install a decoder. I'm currently operating DCC with a MRC Prodigy system. You known what they say: 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Good luck - Austin in NW Washington.