After 5 years of no trains, I’ve finally had the chance to run this loco. In fact the H10 was the first engine I’ve purchased in 7 years. Unfortunately life happened and other circumstances prevented me from running the engine until now. Of course this is 2 months after the warranty is up.
When I received the engine in 2018 it went back to the dealer the same day it arrived due to stripped screws. Now that I’ve got it running the issues keep piling up.
1. Noisy smoke unit - this is the loudest smoke unit I’ve heard - it is louder than Railsounds and sticks out like a sore thumb. I seem to recall that this was a common issue. Are there any solutions besides replacing the unit? I believe this is a finicky boiler mounted unit.
2. Tender hatch is uneven - the tender hatch looks very sloppy. It almost looks like they used a part that doesn’t fit. I can’t figure out a fix for this. Any ideas?
3. Tender marker light - one marker light seems to have a mind of its own. It didn’t work on the first run. Then it turned on by itself. A few runs later it is no longer working. I traced the wires in the tender and they look fine. I am running using the Lionchief app. Powe is an older Lionel transformer that provides 16 volts.
4. Smoke output is very poor. It seems ok at slower speeds but non existent at medium or higher speeds. Whistle smoke seems ok. The units aren’t overfilled and were primed with fluid as per the manual. Smoke output seems to be about 25% of what I would get from my 1st issue Legacy K-4
As I look to get back into the hobby this has been incredibly disheartening. Hopefully these are the only problems with this loco.
Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions.