As promised, here's a video review. The video isn't polished, but it should give some additional thoughts and impressions that I have. In the video, I promise an Augmented Reality object to download for anyone who wants to put a virtual model of the engine on their screen (for zooming and inspection) or on their train table to see how it looks in the real world--I'm working on it, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
A summary of my thoughts:
-Great pulling power. Acceleration/Deceleration appear to have gotten some attention as it's not too jerky.
-Engine wants to go really fast even at a very modest turn of the dial.
-Horn and bell are just plain awful. This should be an easy fix and I'm surprised nothing's changed in Beta 2.
-If there were changes to anything other than the acceleration/deceleration, I'm overlooking something. But I can't find any.
-For $160, it's hard to complain too much.
Beta 3/Production Candidate suggestions:
Get a better horn and bell. Hands down.
Recalibrate speed-to-dial-turns. Engine moves really fast even at a relatively slight dial turn.
Label the volume switch on the bottom of the engine
Re-orient the remote power switch so that a flip UP is on, and a flip DOWN is off.
If those top two things happened, this engine would be absolutely fantastic at this price point.
