A big lump of iron will always make milling a more pleasurable experience, but people who are not mechanically competent can quickly become overwhelmed with constant maintenance on old industrial machines, they get bought by a company and their employees care and maintenance can vary greatly,

If you have the time to strip it down and rebuild it, this could result in a great machine and a good learning experience, but to quote a lathe for sale on ebay I saw a while ago 'my husband bought this, but it's just too complicated for him to restore' so that depends on your skills really, your budget? What condition you are looking for?

In my opinion if you have space, and you're willing to spend the time and effort getting it up to good usable Condition, a good quality bridgeport would be a much better investment that will last you a lifetime, but it depends on what your immediate goals are, restoring a machine can be full time project in itself

In my experience Bridgeport machines are over-priced, even for badly abused machines. There are many great Bridgeport clones coming out of Tiawan. I have a Sharp machine that even has hard chromed ways. It is every bit as good at a real Bridgeport. For a table-top machine I suggest the Rong Fu RF45. I have one that I am just beginning to use. I am in the process of mounting a DRO and plan to adapt a two speed motor to it. I like the fact that it is a geared head machine so I do not have to fiddle with belts.

I wouldnt waste your dosh on the RF45's from the various sources theyre well over £2k now, limited in speed and more importantly made to a price in asia. So in argument to the Bridgeport i would sooner have a good old machine than a junk new one.
You wont like the price of the parts either in 2010 £244 for transfer gearbox (Super Lux) for the elevation whole machine cost £910 in 2004 now well over £2300.
More alarming the secondhand prices of these are that of brand new only a few years back. So use machine, wear it out which wont take a lot and sell for price bought for.
In all fairness its brought the prices of Bridgies up for good reason as any other quality product that is now no longer made.

I would go for a Bridgeport or Korean made clone.

I have a Bridgeport and it does all I need. I have in the past used an "XYZ" Bridgeport clone and never had any issues with it.