I converted my Pacific to also do battery power. I put a plug on the wires leading to the engine and a plug on the track pickups and the wire leading back to the plug on the back of the tender. That way I can switch back and forth easily. Not sure I ever will, but who knows? Does the smoke unit pull too much power and will run the batteries down pretty quick? I have two 9.6v battery packs in the tender, using one of Del’s units and the cheap 2.4 radio.
Buddy came over with his grandson. Ran it, with the smoke unit/lights/sound. Got an hour or so out of it. Smoke was sorta wimpy compared to when it was on track power(but it would sometimes quit!). May forget about that, usually too windy here anyway. Ran nice and smooth. I had put extra track pickups on the 3 axle trucks, but still had jerking sometimes. I don’t have much track powered stuff left. Need to buy more batteries, I guess.
I think I’ve used the smoke unit maybe twice on all of my steamers. It just looks wimpy to my eye, no matter how much “smoke” is coming out. I’d rather use my “mind’s eye,” for the smoke, just as I use my “mind’s ear,” for the sound. It just seems better, somehow.
Yes, they draw the batteries down in nothing flat! I aggree with Steve, even with track power there is not all that much smoke and it is the wrong color! The Smle unit is one of the first things I remove during a conversion along with several other useless circuit boards.
Paul