Folks:
It's unfair of me to say this. I don't own it, nor will I, given its $400 list price. Still, based only on the review in the July MR my feelings are indeed 'mixed', to say the least. And you know, most of these aren't unique problems, just rather extreme examples of what I consider common features of modern HO steam.
- What happened with its speed? Indeed, what happened with the 12v HO standard? MTH says it runs 70 @ 12v, MR says 13 SMPH...what happened? Anybody else there got this machine yet? Did somebody calculate wrong? Not so much overthinking here, really, but perhaps a little too much voltage drop through diodes? Too much electronic complication?
- Power pickup through tender, automagically switching to engine when required? Why not just pick up through the lokey all the time and eliminate the committee of vigilance? There's a triumph of overthinking for you.
- 10 car pulling capacity? Seems a little low on the level. My MDC 2-6-0 can probably do better than that. Traction tires really aren't an elegant solution...I hope there's a way to add weight.
- Puffing smoke...nice for a show, and the puffing feature is ingenious, but you know, the Reynolds number just isn't right on any smoke unit I've ever seen. Perhaps if it were ejected at 87 times the real velocity? :) Perhaps they could use hydrogen-based smoke ? :D
- Yellow LED -- almost rather have a jewel. They just don't look like a headlight. Headlights look yellowish but not like an LED...
That's all. I'm not saying it's a bad engine, just that I'd like to see more opinions. Care to comment?
Cordially yours: Gerard P.