I think you will find the K-27 was the only loco in the Spectrum series that had the back to front chuff signal.  Which by the way is a very easy fix.
All locos since have had the chuff signal the correct way around.
I would expect Bachmann to stick the updated format for the C-19.

A recent Large Scale club meeting I attended in Brisbane indicated that the C-19 will be very well received. 

As it should be.

It would have been nice if Bachmann had more than just the one version with modern rounded domes and headlight.

It has been my experience that reed switches and magnets work best if the reed switch is mounted at 90 degrees to the magnets.  They are certainly less susceptible to missing a beat because of sideways slop by the axles.  Reduce the slop anyway by using spacer washers, leaving just a very small amount of slop to prevent axle binding.

Some of it may drift up and out, but most of it gets sucked down into the loco because the motor "cooling"  fan is mounted the wrong way around.
If you can get it mounted the right way around, the smoke output through the stack becomes copious.

Hi Kevin.

There two or three ways to wire the Connie depending on how complicated you want it to get.

(1). The easiest is to simply unplug the CON7 connection and remove the track pick ups in the tender.  Then hook  the ESC output to what were the points in the tender that the track picks ups were connected to.
The disadvantage is the lights etc behave exactly as they would on track power.

(2).  My favorite is to isolate the motor and rewire it direct to the ESC via a pair of wires from the tender to the loco.  Also unplug CON7.  After removing the track pick ups in the tender I then wire the battery to what were the track pick up connections.  The rear light is wired to the lighting controls.  Providing the polarity is correct this allows the loco electrics to be on full voltage with the front light on all the time, with the rear light illuminating with direction change.  Not unprototypical.

(3).  However, for those that want the front light to go out when in reverse you can add a small DPDT relay to the battery voltage.  The relay coil would be controlled by the ESC lighting output and reverse the loco wiring on direction change.

One thing you must do is put some silicone adhesive on the wires in the loco to tender plugs to act as strain relief and prevent wire breakage.

Hi Bill.

You probably read about the "CON7" wiring here:

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=17049

Here is an article on how I go about converting the CONNIE to battery R/C using RCS and MyLocosound.

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=17049

The pdf file equivalent http://rcs-rc.com/PDF/Acessories/Installation-kits/BIK-CONNIE.pdf

Technology changes.
I would expect Bachmann to use different RF technology to that which it used when they brought out their very first Large Scale loco and set all those years ago.
The set was made to a price and did the job it was designed to do quite well.  My advice is that Bachmann sold enough of these early sets to amortise the cost of the tooling for all subsequent Big Hauler series locos and equipment.

I will put it another way.
They work totally differently even though they are on the same frequency band.
So no, the loco RX is not capable of doing what you want it to. Even though the RX is picking up some sort of signal it responds to, that is really a fluke.

Sleeping Bear is correct.
The R/C is very basic 27 MHz SuperHet RF that will respond to just a simple burst of signal energy anywhere in the 27 MHz band.  So, my guess is the loco has latched onto the broad 27 MHz carrier wave for the Digital Proportional signal.

Welcome to battery R/C.

Yes indeed the specialist R/C ESC's I make are more expensive than those designed for cars, boats and planes.  That is because they do much more than the simpler ESC's.  For a start they can handle 24 volt input.  They have reversing, unlike some ESC's that do not.  They also have constant brightness directional lighting outputs and four sound triggers.
That is just the hardware.  They offer programming options for various types of locos, assign sound trigger outputs to either momentary or latch ON - OFF.

BTW, you can assign (as in bind) as many RX's (locos) to one TX as you wish.  What you cannot do with RCS ESC's using 2.4 Ghz stick radios, is run multiple locos controlled independently from one TX.
Actually if you can keep track of what one loco is doing, you might be able to control two independently on the one track.  Any more, forget it.

There is a reason why they have poor smoke.
The fan is mounted upside down and sucks the air down.
If you turn the fan over, (not an easy job), or even simply disconnect it you will be well satisfied doing so.
Disconnected, the smoke output is definitely better.  With the fan reversed I would describe it as copious.

The owners of most of the dozen or so K-27's that I have seen, did not want smoke, so I haven't had to  bother.  However, if the loco is track powered I would do it.

RCS now has this installation updated and in pdf format.

http://rcs-rc.com/PDF/How-to/3-Truck-Shay.pdf

I might add that during reassembly it is most important to make sure the two front sanding lines are placed in  FRONT of the cross member in rhe holes provided in the chassis.  If you don't they will drag on the front drive wheels.
I have just this week done one and this time took pics which I will publish asap.

As far as I know there is not a decent wiring diagram for the older Climax.
What I can tell you is that the motor is connected internally in each truck to the track pick ups which will involve some careful surgery to separate.  Then extra wires must be fed up into the loco.
Also note that the chuff timer does not work.  So if you are planning sound you will have to use voltage sense of speed or fabricate a mechanical method of chuff timing.

Which version of the Climax do you have?

Older non DCC or the current DCC ready?

By battery power, do you mean R/C controlled as well?

If so, will the R/C control system be in the loco or in the trail car?