I just picked up this MTH AS-616. I had not seen a Peabody Coal engine so I had to have this one. My uncle worked for a man that bought out some of Peabody's coal mines in Kentucky and Ohio, not sure which ones besides the Panther Mine, so I have a fondness for Peabody Coal. I was pleased to find out this unit had smoke. It only has Loco Sounds, but I run conventional only. So today I primed it and fired up the smoke unit. I was very pleased it puts out quite a bit of smoke very quickly and smokes at low track voltage, ie: slow speeds. Of course the only other smoker I have is the PE Berkshire, and the smoke unit is out in it, (was when I got it). And like one of my other MTH diesels it will crawl along at very slow speeds. I have a third MTH which would run about 400mph so I wired that one's motors in series and it behaves like the other two.
I had a hard time getting a picture that really shows the smoke output, but this one is ok, still does not do the engine justice. But I thought I'd share this with the Forum.
I threw a couple of Atlas's Peabody hoppers behind it for the shot. I have to modify them as they are two rail, but acquired them at a nice price, and I have spare trucks. This loco needs O31, but will run on O27 I just have to slightly modify the switch machine covers, the same to run those hoppers as well. I was very pleased with this loco, One of only two that I did not have to modify something to get them to run properly.
I give it 
........... this will be one of my favorites.....
