visionline hudson question

Does the "chuff sound" work correctly? If there is no "chuff" sound it could be a bad or misadjusted cherry switch. If the chuff sound is working,what about at a bit faster speeds, does it begin puffing them? If so, its probably due to operating it conventionally,under command a stopped loco has a steady stream of smoke, then the smoke stops and begins puffing when the locomotive gets under way. If it puffs at faster speeds it may be something related to the lower conventional start speed voltage. Mike Reagan explained on one of his videos that the smoke units operate under less voltage when the locomotive is stationary, when it begins to move the voltage "ramps up". If you loco begins puffing at a higher rate of speed then the lack of puffing at slow speed under conventional operation is not providing the voltage necessary for it to "ramp up" and begin puffing, this is not an issue under command because the loco is recieving 18v at all times, conventionally operated locos start off at a fraction of this voltage.Ultimately I'm guessing here, you can email Lionels customer service "tech support" about this and they will tell you for sure. I stress email as opposed to calling,then your question will get to the folks that really know the answer, often times thats Mike Reagan himself.

No, but when you add legacy you will operate that loco with the transformer set at full throttle.When you say a "pretty big loop of track, how big? You could try adding additional power feeders to the areas farthest from the transformer. Have you tried putting a 9v battery in the tender to help with the sound loss during direction changes etc. You have alot of different things going on here.You may want to paste this on the "3 Rail O Guage Trains" Forum it may get a bit more exposure there. I know forum member Lee Willis runs all of his legacy and vision line stuff convetionally, he may have some ideas.

I first ran my VL Hudson in conventional mode with a Z-4000, but when I added the Legacy V-1.3, it performed MUCH better.

These engines were made to run BEST with Legacy.

Did you put fluid into the whistle reservoir?  Not connected to the problems you mentioned, but if you were unaware of the battery (in the manual), maybe you missed this, too. 

I run only conventional.  My Hudson chuffed and puffed smoke nicely since day one.  Never had a problem.  It tends to go berserk though and start blowing its horn or whistle if the track is dirty - it's the most sensitive of my locos.  

Was the loco tested in your shop in conventional mode or did they use a Legacy controller?  If so, they might have turned something off, etc.  I'd go back and ask them.  I wondering if it could be that the loco was tested in the shop in control mode with a Legacy controller and something was re-set so that it would only behave if in Legacy mode from then on . . . 

Do you notice it acting like it has a mind of its own more on curves than straight aways?  If so, I would look at the wiring from the IR sensor on the drawbar that runs back inside of the engine.  My wiring was rubbing on one of the wheels of the trailing truck causing it to short.  This shorting caused the engine to act as if it had a mind of its own.  If that is the problem a little electrical tape or liquid electrical tape should solve your problem.  Good Luck.

Although some folks prefer to run the VL Hudson in conventional mode, there is no doubt that this engine runs best with Legacy V 1.3.

I, too, ran mine in conventional mode with a Z-4000 on an 072 circle until I acquired my Legacy system, and it ran nicely.

Legacy control gives you ALL the features of this engine's sound system, which is AWESOME, to say the least!