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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of the OGR forum members.  It is a pleasure to be part of such a knowledgeable and friendly forum and wish everyone here the best in 2015!

 

I finally had some time to stretch the legs of my new VL Big Boy and snapped the following teaser video:

 

I'll be posting a more complete and detailed video over the weekend.  My loving wife purchased me a GoPro camera, so I'm looking forward to trying out the new camera....and what better way to break it in, than filming the VL Big Boy. (The above is an iPad camera, so I apologize for the lackluster quality).

 

As far the Engine is concerned, it is amazing and has to rank up there as one of, if not the finest O Gauge locomotive ever built.  The echo effect of the 3 speakers is incredible (I do not own a VL Challenger, so this is my first engine with the split speaker set-up). 

 

I would like to defer to some fellow owners on here a small issue I seem to be having.  My blown-down effect does not appear to be working properly.  I get a very small and barely noticeable smoke discharge from the side of the locomotive.  This appears to be in stark contrast to numerous videos I have seen, where the smoke effect is quite noticeable.  Moreover, I carefully followed the instructions; adding the recommended allotment of drops into the unit and ensured there were no air bubbles present my gently blowing down the smoke tube.  Is any one else experiencing this issue?  I'd surmise there is simply not enough fluid soaking into the wick of the unit, however, I do not want to overfill the unit...a big no no for obvious reasons.

 

I appreciate any advice you might have and hope you all enjoy the video.  It truly is an incredible engine!

 

Best to you and your families, Merry Christmas!

 

Michael

 

Last edited by F30MSport
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I had to add more than 20 drops to get good smoke from all the smoke units, the blowdown took a while before I got decent smoke even then.  I thought it was broken at first, but I was getting air, not smoke.  The odd thing was that I got plenty of smoke when I opened the sand dome fill hole, so I knew the smoke unit was working.  After blowing in the hole numerous times, I started getting decent smoke from the blowdown.

 

Originally Posted by Passenger Train Collector:

Congratulations Michael on this beautiful new Big Boy.

Thank you very much, PTC!! 

 

Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:

I had to add more than 20 drops to get good smoke from all the smoke units, the blowdown took a while before I got decent smoke even then.  I thought it was broken at first, but I was getting air, not smoke.  The odd thing was that I got plenty of smoke when I opened the sand dome fill hole, so I knew the smoke unit was working.  After blowing in the hole numerous times, I started getting decent smoke from the blowdown.

 

John, thanks for the tip.  I ran into the same scenario.  I had a relatively nice stream of smoke emanating from the sand down fill hole with the cover removed...so I know the smoke unit resistor and fan are both working.

 

The locomotive also has a self-diagnostic check that can alert users to issues with the smoke units (I have not run into such an error yet).  So hopefully it's just a matter of working the proverbial 'kinks' out! 

 

 

 

 

 

Last edited by F30MSport

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