I will say this, and most likely it will have changed, but please Lionel used the exact smoke unit for this new model and just add continuous stream of smoke in idle. The FEF I have has the best smoke unit of any Lionel engine I own.
I think exactly the same. Why I even have a spare 630-112-2200 smoke unit, AC regulator and 6 Ohm resistors; the smoke unit itself is no longer available from Lionel and hasn't been for a few years.
But/so I am thinking that the new FEF3s are practically bound to have the now standard plastic bowl smoke units. The smoke output on the newer Legacy engines I have that are equipped with these units (including the VLBB) is good but my original FEF3 literally blows rings around them.
Sigh. This is what they call progress I guess.
Not to hijack the OP's thread, my 2ยข on the O-60 issue is that you may well encounter a problem with running the tender over any switch that is less than O-72. I had a problem trying to reverse my FEF3 through an O-54 switch because of the centipede wheelset not being able to handle the angle. It negotiates O-72 tubular track switches, both going forwards and backwards, with no difficulty, but you can see the wheel displacement (if that's the right word) while it does so.
