OK, the painting was a success. Grimy black, redo the lettering, paint everything and then Neolub anything that moves.
Reassemble everything, and on DC, everything still runs just fine. REALLY well. So short of wiring in the decoder with sound (which you won't see) this is about it.
I just can't get over how much difference the repaint made. This is truly a beautiful brass locomotive when you can see all that detail.

Years and years and years ago, there was a feature in Model Railroader about 'The Santa Fe Roster of Bob Kjellander' (sp?) and it was all the HO brass locomotives he'd done, mostly PFM. That was just so stunning. This many years later I can say that article was my inspiration.