I’ve spent about 20 minutes with it and here are some first impressions:
It DOES negotiate my 24" radius eased curves well with the tender on the second drawbar hole. The overhang is fairly excessive, though.
There are no “indexed” CV settings, everything is straight single CV programming.
The overall look and feel of quality is very nice.
The only issue I can see right now, is that the front coupler has no centering spring. Don’t know if that is intentional, but it is IMO, minor, and potentially an easy fix.
I had no problems programming it with my PA.
Most of the functions are not the same as the past standard BLI mapping, save the bell and whistle. There is a whole page in the manual devoted to funtion mapping.
It appears that the somewhat complex startup/shutdown procedure has be rethought, as I see no refernce to multiple F6/F9 presses.
The sound is verry good, even at low volume settings.
Out of the box, it moved very slowly on speed step 1.
This is my first “smoke unit”. When on, you can hear it making a metalic tick, even with the sound muted. Turning it off silences it. Don’t know how much use it will get, ut I will play with it at least a few times.
The wiring connection can be performed with both units on the track, if you are careful, although the plug can sit in the socket without being fully seated. IMO this is much better than in the past.
Yes, you can see the red lead to the headlight. Should be an easy fix.
I LIKE IT. Even though it is too big for my 15x19 layout.
Still wish I could have bought two H10 2-8-0s instead.