Jack Morey posted:I have two Niagara's, 6005 and 6013. I run my layout with a MTH Z4000. The Z4000 has an digital amp meter. When I turn on the smoke (locomotive stationary or running) the amp meter spikes about 5 to 5.5 amps above what it just was for a few seconds, then settles down to about .5 amps higher than with the smoke unit off. Both Niagara's do this. With a couple of trains already running (drawing about 5 amps) and turning on one of the Niagara's smoke units, I see 11+ amps for a few seconds, then it settles back to (in this case) 5.5 amps. The Z4000 seems to handle that momentary load okay.
Hey, I think this video by Mike Reagan may explain what is happening. If you fast forward it to about the 18 minute mark (17:58, to be exact), Mike explains that, upon initial startup of the smoke unit, the power is really high just to get the unit going, and then drops down to a normal operating smoke level (low, medium, high).
