Engine design, what's better?

[BLACK KNIGHT]

So last night, I was curious about how my engines worked exactly and popped the shells off of them. I have 2 diesel engines, one by Life-Like and the other by Model Power. They sound very different but I had always assumed they worked the same way. I was surprised to see they were totally different. The Model Power seemed to draw power from the track from both front and rear wheels and send it to a motor which turned both the front and rear wheels as it had 2 drive shafts in it. The Life-Like only seems to draw power from the rear wheels and send it to a motor directly mounted to the front wheels, so it's a FWD.

I'm assuming the Model Power design is superior, but the Life-Like design certainly looked cleaner and is much quieter.

Are there other engine designs even better somehow?

 

[Cjcrescent]

For diesels, the motor in the middle with the driveshafts to each truck has been the basic diesel drive since the 1960's. How good it functions, depends entirely on who made it. It's used by just about everyone now.

There is a another driveshaft system where the drive shaft comes out of the motor, into a gear tower and down to the gear train in the truck, where there is a shaft coming out of the truck, going to the second truck. This looked like the letter C basically. The Hobbytown brand of chassis kit and some brass diesels used this system.

 

[BLACK KNIGHT]

I wasn't too surprised by the Model Power engine as I remember as a kid in the 80s I took the shell off of my Tyco engine and there was one driveshaft running to the rear truck. The fact that it had 2 driveshafts to each truck seems like a better idea.

I was just really surprised by the Life Like not even having a driveshaft but a motor mounted onto the front truck, I assume turning the wheels by gears.

 

[FCL2117]

In my occasionally humble opinion, the more wheels you have picking up current, the far better off you'll be. Similarly, the more driven wheels, the better.

 

[Cjcrescent]

...
I was just really surprised by the Life Like not even having a driveshaft but a motor mounted onto the front truck, I assume turning the wheels by gears.

That one has what most modelers call a pancake motor. While some are good, this type of motor has a less than stellar reputation. Most of these motors are called 40 hour motors, because that's about as long as they last.