Adding smoke to Bachmann 603 J-Class

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi, I just picked up a Bachmann Norfolk and Western 603 J-Class locomotive. It is DCC ready. What I’m wondering is has anyone ever added a smoke unit to one of these? My son would like to get this smoking at least as well as his older 600. The 600 J-class has the standard Bachmann smoke (pot) unit with the little pipe sticking up in the middle. Even if we could drill out the stack and add one of these it would be great. Since this is a new locomotive we don’t want to “crack the case” unless we have to. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.!

Thanks,

Pat

2

Many of us prefer NOT to use smoke units as they tend to coat the track with smoke oil and they stink and are hard for those with breathing problems.

Just my [2c] worth.

3

If you can find a suitable smoke producer, that will make smoke that actually looks like that produced by a J at work, by all means, use it. OTOH, if the output is the anemic wisp of cigarette smoke produced by the usual smoke generator, why bother.

For the record, I haven’t seen ANY smoke unit that produces realistic looking coal smoke, never mind that towering plume normal for a starting locomotive. And, if you did find one, you probably wouldn’t want to be in the same room with it.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with smokeless steam locomotives)

4

Sorry, but that’s not the answer my 12 year old son would want to hear…

I’ll have to return your two cents.

[2c]

5

This is for my 12 yo son… his 600 J Class Bachmann just gave out on him. Bachmann in Phila. was nice enough to upgrade us to a Spectrum HOWEVER it doesn’t smoke and the boy want’s smoke! The 600 had a generic Bachmann smoke unit that has a little pipe in the middle. Surprisingly it made lots of smoke… achh… choke you smoke. But to a young boy that’s the world! “How much smoke it can make”. Being a Flyer S Gauger I know all about the want and need for smoke. SO I was just poking around here to see if anyone had any tips.

Thanks.

6

You might check out a company called Seuthe. Their products used to be in the Walthers catalog. The products appear to be available in the US market.

7

Thanks. I did open it up last night to have a look around. First thing we found is the stack didn’t have to be drilled it had a plug in it. Next thing we found is that with some minor modification of the lamp holder a Bachmann universal smoke pot (the type the 600 had in it) would sit on the chassis and clear the body. I would have to grind about 1/4 inch or so of the lamp holder casting away to be able to move the smoke pot up far enough to be under the stack opening. What I’m wondering is "what is the reason Bachmann doesn’t have smoke in ANY of it’s DCC trains? Would this interfere with the electronics of the DCC?

8

A smoke generator draws a lot of current and will overload and blow out the DCC decoder. Putting smoke into a Spectrum is going to invalidate any warranty the model may have.

If smoke is your only concern, go buy a cheaper model to put it into.

9

Thanks, this is what I was hoping to hear… I was thinking it would cause trouble with the DCC decoder. However at this time the train is being run on DC with jumpers inplace and no decoder. Do you think it would still run on DC without the decoder and the smoke unit added? For now the plans are to run it DC only. The main reason we ended up with this DCC ready Spectrum is Bachmann was kind enough to let me upgrade my son’s Model #600, which is an older J Class (non DCC) that has smoke. He really likes the smoke. If it’s a trade of of being able to have smoke or DCC I think at this stage he’d go for Smoke.

Thanks,
Pat

10

If you are not running it on DCC and have the jumper plug still in place, you may be okay. A Seuth smoke generator may be a better choice than one of the Bachmann units, however. Be aware that either one is going to produce a lot of heat and could melt plastic.

11

Thanks Cacole, the 600 was a plastic shell with no apparent ill effects from the smoke generator. I’ll look into the Seuth smoke generators…

Thanks again for the input, I’ll keep this thread up to date as to my progress (if any)

12

The Bachmann smoke unit is apparently still available from Bachmann for $5 so it wouldn’t cost a lot to take a chance and get one and see if it can be retrofit in. I’d suggest also going to their website’s “Ask the Bach-man” forum and ask about the conversion. Odds are someone there will have more info.

As it happens I’m looking at the other way around…after many years I unpacked my Bachmann Plus J from the nineties that had very little running time, and am wondering about converting it to DCC now. Sounds like the smoke unit may have to be disconnected however.

13

While I am not a fan of smoke (does get the track and the engine pretty nasty) Some DCC decoder (you should double check with the manufacture) can support some units. BLI Paragon II have smoke units and my PCM Big Boy came with a smoke unit. Never turned it on I will add. My Big Boy has a Loksound 3.5 decoder.

Ken