Accessing the switch on the Q2

Ok, so I’m tired of cleaning all of the smoke fluid residue off the boiler, and would like to run this engine without having to press f7 every single time. The manual states that the smoke switch is located behind the smoke box door, how do I remove the door and get to the switch? Is there a safe way to do this without scratching the paint?

Great loco, poor design for the smoke unit and switch.

Instead of opening up the loco, why not change the cv setting that controls F7.

CV246… Set to 0; Turns Smoke Unit off when Power is Applied. Smoke will not come on unless you press F7 (or perform a reset and forget to reset 246 to 0 again}. This is a safety feature to prevent all your smokers from burning up all the smoke fluid just sitting on a siding.

That sounds like a workable solution. The question has been asked on the BLI forum and Matt will probably respond in a day or so if you still want to manually shut it off.

http://www.broadway-limited2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2157

Insteresting as this is NOT what the manual for the T-1 reads - it states that if you use F7 to turn off the smoke, it will turn back on if the loco is taken off the track and put back on, or if the power is removed and turned back on.

Maybe they fixed this, as this would NOT be a desireable behavior IMO. Once off I’d want it to STAY off.

–Randy

My Y6b turns the smoke back on each time as well. If you flip the loco upside down you should see the switch.

This process of changing CV 246 to zero is mentioned in a BLI technical update bulletin called “Fine-Tuning Your PRR Q-2 Model For DCC Operation”: http://www.broadway-limited.com/support/Fine-tuning%20DCC%20operation.pdf

I just checked my Y6b which also says it’s behind the smoke box door. The switch is located just forward of the cab under one side of the last main driver. Yours should be somewhere similar. Flip the loco upside down and you should see it.

There was also a technical update for the Y6b that corrected the location of the smoke unit switch: http://www.broadway-limited.com/support/Paragon2%20Y6b%20Technical%20Bulletin.pdf