If we are talking about a new run of the Life Like DL's then you should have a pretty good hauler. The older runs and I have a number of E Types, operated smoothly and pulled fairly well. I had to becareful when performing maintenance the unit could fall apart after the shell was lifted. Not a lot of fun to fix. I hope this tidbit of info helps.
AFAIK Life Like only did the one run of DL109's, the "new" ones. It's split frame, heavy and is very good--especially for $52 at Walthers. The only drawback I found was that the dual headlight versions have the lower headlight painted on--it's not a different casting. The prototype of the one I bought had only one headlight to begin with, so it wasn't an issue for me.
LifeLike only made a split-frame version of the DL-109 and delivered in late 2005/early 2006. It is a very good running model and looks great too. Here's my Santa Fe 'flavored' one: The only other manufacturer to make a 'plastic' shell version of the DL-109 was ConCor... and their version is not as well detailed... albeit... over 30 years ago was when theirs were tooled. The interesting thing about the DL-109 was that it was a short-lived model in the prototype. The E units and F units pretty much doomed them within a couple of years after it was unveiled. It was like the Intel 286 processor in the 1980's.... it was rendered obsolete by the 386, 486 and Pentium processors soon after being released. There were few roads that had them and most of those virtually retired them within 5-10 years. It think that northeastern roads (New Haven) may have had them in commuter service longer.
Really, most early cab units (FTs, early E-units, DL-109s, Babyfaces) didn't last long, in many cases not making it to the 1960s.
I believe the DL-109s require some frame milling to create space for a decoder. They are the same construction as the split-frame FA, FA-2, Erie-built, and C-liner. The latest releases of some of these, I believe, have a slot for a DCC-board. But not the DL-109s. Frame milling isn't that difficult with a roto-tool and a Dremel barrel cutter (part 115?). But you do have to disassemble the entire mechanism to get at the motor brushes, and then take care that everything is indeed isolated properly. Not the easiest of conversions, but fairly straightforward, without any really difficult steps. I've done four of them at once in about two hours, although the first one took much longer.
ALCo produced the DL-109 from 1940-1945. As a rule, the War Production Board ordered ALCo and Baldwin to produce switchers and EMD to produce road power during the Second World War. ALCo managed to get an exception from the WPB to produce DL-109s for the NYNH&H, only. The DL-109s were rendering excellent service to that road. The New Haven ran them on passenger trains by day and freights at night. During that period, they had a very good availability rate, despite their being run around the clock. On the end, NYNH&H was running them in pairs on commuter trains. Other freight and passenger power had superceded them. By the 1960s, they were old and in need of major rebuilding, therefore they broke down more frequently. NYNH&H considered that it made more economic snese to buy newer power. The prime mover in these was the 539, the same prime mover that was in the RS-1. We will recall that the RS-1 had the longest production run of any US built diesel locomotive, 1941-1960. There were no major changes to the locomotive during that run and only a few minor ones. The 539 was a reliable prime mover. As ALCo had ceased production of that prime mover in 1960, perhaps there was concern in the parts departments of several roads regarding availability of spare parts. After 1946, more powerful prime movers appeared. Unfortunately for ALCo, its 244 was not as reliable as the 539, although it was more powerful--when it functioned. The appearance of more powerful locomotives was what relegated these things to lesser tasks. The FA and PA series simply superceded these. It was too bad for ALCo that they were not as reliable.
Rick, if you are considering using DL-109s then you ought to look at Walthers web site. They are having sales on many of the LifeLike locos they acquired when they bought LL. Go to Walthers, select advanced search, choose "Locomotive" and "N" from the drop downs then select "items on sale" and "items in stock." You will find them under two different manufacturers numbers, 433 and 920. Good prices. Also good prices on C-Liners and FAs, all smooth runners and good pullers.
I've bought the NH version. Heavy model, good running, nice price. I want it converted to DCC. Anyone a good suggestion about the decoder? And is there somewhere an example about installing the decoder on the web?
I finally bought an undecorated for my non-historic. It runs and pulls well, despite its having an idler axle in each wheel. The prototype also had an idler, but duplicating this in N scale locomotives often compromises the pulling power severely. Kato had the best idea when it made all axles geared on its RSC-2 (the protoype had A-1-A). Atlas pulled a boner when it put an idler axle on its RSD-4 trucks (the protoype was C-C, the Atlas is B-1-1-B, or is it 1-B-B-1? I do not have one in front of me, but I do recall that the idler axle on each truck is on an end). My one gripe about this one is the quality of the plastic from which the shell is made. I attempeted to swap out the dummy coupler for the included sprung coupler. I made the mistake of using the included self-tapping mounting screw. The plastic is so brittle that the screw stripped the hole. This resulted in my having to glue the screw in its mounting hole. For the next one, I will be using the pin and a spacer. Other than that it is a pretty good locomotive.
