Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

My adventure is still in the research phase, but I'll begin:

I'm retiring from teaching after next school year and contemplating the purchase of a coal-fired live steam locomotive (manual control, no R/C) as my retirement present. So far, I'm looking at the following:

Riverside Locomotives Elke (Roundhouse Billy): Very expensive and would require a trip to Holland (not a bad thing) since Riverside doesn't ship to the U.S. The Billy would be, by far, my top choice if I abandoned my coal plans and bought another gas-fired loco.
https://www.riverdale-loco.com/

DJB Ragleth: Less expensive, but based on an Accucraft. I haven't been very happy with my Accucraft live steam locos, but my understanding is that the DJB conversion really does turn it into a much better machine. I also kind of like the styling of the Ragleth. There is also the DJB Saddle Tank, but I'm not sure that I like the look of that one.
http://www.djbengineering.co.uk/rtr-cf-ragleth.shtml

Elstow Engineering also converts the Billy and other Roundhouse locos, but I haven't found out much except the limited info on the web site.
http://www.elstow-engineering.co.uk/index.html