Thanks for the info. I gave it a try but apparently it didn't have enough current as neither the smoke unit or tender light would come on. I'm not really sure how to test the current though. I've got the Digitrax Super Chief so I'm sure there's a way, I'll just have to look it up. The tender light wires each had a designated spot on the decoder so I ran wires from the smoke unit to those as there were no blues wires anywhere to the engine. Thinking back I could probably have spliced into a front headlight wire but not knowing which was the ground & no way to tell I didn't take a chance. Looking back I should probably have run the wire to the front headlight points on the decoder as the way it would have worked, if it worked would be the smoke only coming on in reverse as that's the only time that light works.
Anyway...If you have any other ideas please let me know. The only other thing I can think of is to run wires to the pickups and install a small switch on the bottom of the tender like what MTH does on their O gauge engines. And for anyone else thinking about trying this...there sin't much room for a smoke unit anyway. The front headlight holder is in the way and it's diecast. I cut some of it off but the top of the smoke unit still sticks out too much. Otheriwse you'll have to cut the whole bracket off and remount the headlight. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!
Anyway...If you have any other ideas please let me know. The only other thing I can think of is to run wires to the pickups and install a small switch on the bottom of the tender like what MTH does on their O gauge engines. And for anyone else thinking about trying this...there sin't much room for a smoke unit anyway. The front headlight holder is in the way and it's diecast. I cut some of it off but the top of the smoke unit still sticks out too much. Otheriwse you'll have to cut the whole bracket off and remount the headlight. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!