Have a first gen. Climax and two truck Shay. Have been out of the trains for 5 years or so. Wife went to be with the Lord. Back into the trains to keep busy. What has changed in the 5 years? Many improvements by Bachmann in the Shay and Climax. Parts are easy available and at a acceptable price. The new "die cast" replacement trucks are so much better. My old trucks, the plastic is so hard it is has cracks. The wheels on the die cast do not get dirty in 30 minutes of run time and need cleaning, like the old wheels.
The new 3 truck shay is a very cool machine. The C-19 is a work of art. What a huge beauty.
What has not changed, the terrible smoke unit. Switched it out in my older units. Looks like I will have to on the new units. It throws smoke oil all over the engines. Makes a real mess. Yes, using the included smoke oil that comes with the engines. With all the cool improvements seems the horrible smoke unit has been over looked.
Bachmann how about reinventing your smoke unit to bring it up the the excellent standards you have for the new engines?
Yes to that,I love the smoke they put out,but can be messy on the chassis,there was a conversion to another brand in garden railways mag years ago,that was great,but that aside,these are great,reliable units ,good price,years of service!!!!😊😊😊
In all honesty, Bachmann should upgrade the smoke units to those like Piko smoke units which are small 5 volts with a voltage regulator and put out a GREAT quantity, or like the Aristocraft Fan driven smoke units. These smoke units use A LOT of voltage, and make a mess, causing the wires to oxidize and become brittle. It is time for better smoke units.
I've upgraded all of my Spectrum 4-4-0s, 2-6-0s, shays, Climaxes, Heislers, and 2-8-0s to Piko 5 volts with the Piko voltage regulator.
Do you have any pictures on the updates you could share? That is what I want to explore. Use the Aristo craft smoke unit in the past, but it is no longer available. Have to find another source. Thanks.