I wonder what happens if the smoke is on? Must die sooner?
I taught our grandson about smoke. Now he won't run without it. I just need enough time to get across my dead #7 Atlas 2 rail frogs. The solution would be to figure out a minimum speed to make it with the keep alive and smoke on. I didn't have problems when I only had #5 switches. So I think I just need a minimum time addition out of this. Right now the trains are rocking as each engine stalls for a second.
Could you do a quick test with the smoke on? Even 2 or 3 seconds would be great.