Power for the lights and smoke is taken from the track just like the older units.
I think the only diff. in units would be the “fan”.
The nine volt is for lights if you want to have them on when on a siding.
I do not use that feature.
We ran the unit this Sunday at a train show.
The layout works O.K. but the cabooses lights worked better with the train running to fast for a show and that track layout.
The light flikered and I couldn’t produce any smoke @ a safe speed.
When you have the unit on a test bench you can hear the smoke unit’s fan going!!
When we ran it on the layout I couldn’t hear the fan.
The thing does send smoke up and out the side of the smoke stack like It’s suppose to!
I will try to get some smoke this weekend from the smoke unit.
I did not buy this unit for the smoke, I hardly run any thing with smoke.
The caboose looked like B&M’s crummy’s “small”.
No one noticed it as " Ro’s New Caboose"
In closing : Nice looking
Heavy
well trackin
Nice interour
lights work like they should with track power
the coupa comes off easy , to add smoke flued " use bigger funnell than given"
Smoke unit Hmmmm.
The roof comes off with just removing 4 screws!!
&nb
I just got one of these as well. It’s a very nice model–very heavy, solid construction. It’s small, but so was the prototype. I have a second on order.
I replaced the plunger piston power pickups with ball bearing wheels. Between the weight of the car and the drag of the pistons, it was going to be hard to pull
I have not tried the smoke unit yet, but --it’s kind of a pain to fill. You have to pull the top, remove a small plug and then get the fluid into a tiny hole, then replace the plug.
The lighting is weak–it’s three large incandescents for the overhead and two grain of wheat style bulbs for the marker lights. The battery lights the markers, but the incandescents flicker badly and don’t stay on. I will probably pull the whole thing out and replace it with leds, with a large capacitor to prevent flicker.
It’s an excellent model. I painted the roof of mine black, to match the prototype