Received my new style AristoCraft 0-4-0 Switcher Wednesday. Still looks just like the old one, very American. After a couple of days of operation I think it is a vast improvement over the original. The new style drive train in the locomotive allows low speed operation that the original would either stall out or overheat (my old style is fitted with a very slow self resetting thermal fuse). Under control of Grandchildren the original 0-4-0 had a top speed approaching a DeLorean, if your trackwork was adequate, mine isn't. The new one is actually still a little fast for a prototype, 65 scale mph or so, but will even stay on my track. It may be the fact that the drivetrain is new, but it is extremely quiet at all speeds, cruising, accelerating, and decelerating. All of the electronics are in the tender with an RCC socket for the Revolution Radio unit and a pigtail for a trailing battery car. I have told that other remote units may fit, but at this point I am not into DCC etc. so I cannot say for sure. All of my opinions are to be taken with a sip of mellowing juice, as they are written with one.
