The biggest reason the Mikes and Pacifics don't run at 1 smph is that they're just geared too high for that. I mentioned this to Jon Z. after receipt of my U-33C and he agreed-he's trying to get a better gear ratio on the new SD70's announced for this fall to combat that issue.
Any new Hudson should also be geared lower than the above steamers. in their defense, I still enjoy running them with Legacy or TMCC-it's mostly the start-up that is hard to do well although the newer Legacy Blue Comet does well in this regard.
Like Bob, we need a better smoke unit than the Seuthe unit as they spit fluid all over the boiler and run out of fluid after about 5 minutes of running. Railsounds and Legacy are also desireable as is an electrocoupler.
