HO Steam locomotive smoke?


N

NP2626

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I had one BLI Hudson that had smoke and I didn't think much of it. At best it looked like the smoke from a cigarette and not the bellowing smoke from a steam engine working upgrade on my layout. I let the loco run out of the smoke juice and never put any more juice in it. I had heard the smoke residue could cause problems with my track by putting a film coating on it. I don't know about that. However, put me down as a "No smoking in the train room" guy!
 
Lionel in the early postwar years had the best smoke - it chuffed just sort of like a real steam engine.
I haven't seen anything to come close: I don't need smoke or sound to enjoy model RR.

I wondered where you had been hiding? You have been too quite!
 
Yeah, once again physics don't scale too well. Even if we had scale fire boxes with real coal/flame/water/steam the smoke wouldn't look right.

There isn't enough room in the loco for the smoke generator needed to produce the billowing steam/smoke produced by a real loco. Maybe one could do it with a dummy unit being pushed where the entire guts of the unit were dedicated to holding fluid, producing the smoke, and proper vents/fans to make it chuff properly, but then everything would have to be double headed.

On the museum layout those who use the smoke have found that they can't get 1/2 way around the mainline without stopping to refill the smoke fluid.
 
So how did it work? I would imagine sort of like an E-cigarette where it drips a fluid on a hot element. If that’s the case then I could see why it looked the way you described it.
 
migalyto said:
So how did it work? I would imagine sort of like an E-cigarette where it drips a fluid on a hot element. If that’s the case then I could see why it looked the way you described it.
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The smoke fluid saturates a sponge/felt wick in the reservoir, a heating element heats the fluid until it betins smoking, and a fan controlled by a power pulse from the decoder causes the smoke to puff.
 
I've had mixed results with my MTH Challenger (HO). Some days it does really good, others, not so much. But I enjoy it.

My Rapido steam generator car on the other hand puffs like cigarettes are being banned.
 
And in the State of California.............................................................................................................................
 
Sirfoldalot said:
Lionel in the early postwar years had the best smoke - it chuffed just sort of like a real steam engine.
I haven't seen anything to come close: I don't need smoke or sound to enjoy model RR.

I wondered where you had been hiding? You have been too quite!
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I spend most of the Summers someplace other than here in front of this confuser!
 
As I recall, BLI does not recommend leaving the smoke function enabled with no smoke fluid in the stack. Either shut it off with the CV (I do not recall which one it is) or flip the switch which I believe is located under the cab. Allowing the smoke unit to run without fluid can cause damage to the smoke unit and could also result in melted plastic.
 
I once saw a logging loco in O gauge/scale from either Lionel of MTH that had some very realistic PUFFING smoke,...looked good,...but how long could someone put up with that in a closed room.
 
With all that's been explained in the prior posts, you have one last choice.. It works amazingly well in our eyes...Now don't start laughing ................Cotton. Gently get a small bunch wafting from the stack. When you roll it sways a smidge and does subtle things with the room light. It works with diesel, too; a few whisps at its exhaust port.. If you find you do like it, drop a tenth of a drop of white glue at the lip of the stack...
 
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tootnkumin said:
And in the State of California.............................................................................................................................
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And in the State of California model railroad locomotive smoke has been found to cause cancer in laboratory rats!
 
flyboy2610 said:
As I recall, BLI does not recommend leaving the smoke function enabled with no smoke fluid in the stack. Either shut it off with the CV (I do not recall which one it is) or flip the switch which I believe is located under the cab. Allowing the smoke unit to run without fluid can cause damage to the smoke unit and could also result in melted plastic.
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Good advice!
 
flyboy2610 said:
As I recall, BLI does not recommend leaving the smoke function enabled with no smoke fluid in the stack.
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You are correct. Unfortunately one has to "run it dry" before the locomotive can be stored, otherwise smoke fluid likes to leak out all over everything including the packaging foam.
 
The old late 1950's American Flyer loco's actually had a piston, driven my a driver axle that both chugged and pumped out the smoke. I had the 4-8-4 Pathfinder set.
 
Hows about some discussion on whether the smoke causes trouble with your track?
 
NP2626 said:
Hows about some discussion on whether the smoke causes trouble with your track?
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I've noticed more oil residue on the actual locomotive rather than the track. But I have to say that I've not used it heavily enough to make any equivocal statements about it. In other words, I've cleaned locomotives specifically because of the smoke. Never cleaned track specifically because of the smoke.
 
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