It's quite easy to extend the shorty chassis if you feel the need and you can buy Marklin style couplers as well, so it's not a bad option. Only one of the bogies is powered but one pair of the wheels is fitted with traction tyres, so haulage isn't bad, especially if you add a bit more weight. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that the wheelbase of the bogies is quite short and the bogie sideframes quite small, so they do look a bit out of proportion with a regular 1:220 body.

I have used shorty chassis with 3D printed body shells to reasonable effect so there is certainly some potential there.

Here's a picture of where I got to with it



and here is a picture of the modified chassis underneath




Hope this is of help


Chris

Admittedly, my experience is about five years out of date, but I have pretty much given up with 3d printing for this kind of thing. Filament printers are too coarse to give the detail needed for Z scale and however hard I tried I couldn't clean up resin prints well enough to reveal the detail adequately and consistently. Added to that, the cured resin tends to be quite brittle and not really suitable for body shells. It's great for detailing items and even things like tunnel portals and bridges, but I could never get satisfactory results for rolling stock.

Cheers


Chris