Rtr12 thanks. I was planning on trying the oil drop at some point. As of now I don't even have a single loop of track set up to run on, so fixing the smoke isn't a top priority for me. when the time comes I'll look into something suitable that isn't likely to gum up over time. I'm unlikely to have a place to run trains with smoke for a while.
As for the superchuffer, I don't see why the pull-up et al. would be a problem, but not worth the trouble to test it unless the OP wants me to.
