Obviously more interested in the cons. I know the VL versions had 3 independent smoke units and non VL came with the hated, IMHO, funnel with one unit.
Anything else owners can kick in? Thanks!
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The vision line one, personally, has zero cons. It’s a beauty in every way possible
Cons:
1. My VL UP Genset has an annoying background buzz in the sound system. When running the system at full volume it is drowned out, but if the engine is sitting on a powered track without being addressed the background noise is clearly heard. I think that this was an issue with some early Legacy (modular boards) engines. But not everyone with a VL Genset reported having this problem.
2. Smoke volume out of the stacks was slightly disappointing in my case at least compared with the VL GE Evo and various videos I have seen. But the cycling of the smoke on and off in both engines, and the triggering of 1, 2 or 3 stacks in the Genset, is a great feature. Probably I need to play around with the Genset smoke settings more than I have.
P.S. I would never open mine up to fiddle with the smoke units - there is just too much crammed inside the shell and in fact I never got the battery to fit in the place designated for it!
My Genset has the buzz, although it's not all that loud. The smoke stacks with the flappers are pretty finicky, and I just use those for "demo", the straight stacks are problem-free. The windows are VERY easy to knock out, I finally glued mine in, and I had to order several from Lionel for ones that got lost.
I agree that it's pretty crammed in the shell, but while there are three smoke units, there is only one motor, so that frees up some space. It's surprising the amount of pulling power it has for a single powered truck.
I really liked mine (sold last year during downsizing). The slow speed is outstanding on the vision line version. The only cons for me was the horse facing the wrong way on the NS version.
winrose46 posted:…. The slow speed is outstanding on the vision line version. ...
I didn't know the actual operating characteristics of the V.L. and non-VL were different.
Regardless, keeping the stack flappers scrupulously clean kept mine working nicely. The individual engines and stacks is a very cool feature …. close-up, anyway.
And, yes … outstanding slow speed operation. Better than any other 3-rail engine I owned.
Good luck.
