I don’t know this for a fact, but it may be that a knife blade, a sharp one, placed carefully along the gap running around the circumference of the smoke box cover can be used to gently pry the cover away from its seat. Again, this is merely a guess. If you are uneasy about this, go to BLI’s website, find the forum, and ask your question there.
INSTRUCTIONS ARE INCORRECT.There is a technical bulletin on BLI’s website. BLI apologized for the manual being out of date.
The ON/OFF toggle switch is in front of the cab, underneath the engine, on the engineer’s side. (This makes it much easier to turn ON/OFF by tipping the engine on the track.)
Also, with smoke equipped engines it is typical to have smoke fluid in them from the factory–this is for 2 reasons:
1. So that someone in a store can see what it will do.
2. So that someone test running one in a store does not burn out the smoke unit inadvertantly.
MTH engines ALL come with a certain amount of smoke fluid in them from the factory; I’m sure all the BLI ones with smoke units will as well.
I love my Y-6B; its booming exhaust is most impressive. I prefer it over my MTH 4-6-6-4 and my Genesis Big Boy–and I’m a western road fan!
Agree with reading the tech bulletin. The big one I learned the hard way is there is a large piece of foam under the front wedged between the front truck and boiler. If you don’t remove it you will derail every other turn.
Also they put a small amount of oil in to remind you and so it doesn’t burn out the smoke generator.
If you have dcc you can turn up the smoke even more.
My I1sa has a smoke switch underneath the engine, which I really like. I actually had to shut mine off today because the smoke volume was so massive it smelled up the room really bad! Still, a very impressive mechanism, it puffs out extremely high, thick columns of white mist, if it didn’t stink, I would keep it on all the time.
You can also use F7 on the paragon 2’s to turn smoke off. The smell of the smoke does get to some people so I picked up scented smoke fluid and problem solved. I got one that smells like pipe tobacco. I usually leave it turned off with F7 though. You have to do it each time you power up.
I didn’t know that MTH’s fluid would be ok to use in a a Broadway engine, I guess its all the same stuff right? Does Broadway also make scented fluids? I would like to get the coal scented one if they do.
Bob, could you post a few pictures of your Y6 b and your Class A side by side?
I love my PCM Y6 b and have been looking for another articulated engine. Only I was disappointed with when I got the Y6 b was how much smaller it was compared to my PCM Big Boy.
One of the reasons I have held off on the Class A was because I thought it was a downsized Y6 b. I m guessing your Class A is a BLI version, do you by any chances have a 18 inch turn? I am still stuck with one and it not going any where for some time.
The Y-6B and Big Boy are very different animals, designed for two very different purposes.
The Y-6B grew out of the USRA Heavy Mallet design of WWI, and being used in the East, horizontal and vertical clearances were much more limited than what UP had. So N&W stayed pretty much within those clearances and designed that engine for maximum low speed power, and peak horsepower of about 5500 dbhp at about 25 mph.
The Big Boy was designed to run fast with heavy freight, and although UP had clearance limitations, they were much more generous than N&W’s, so it was able to “grow large”.
The A Class 2-6-6-4, being a “later” design than the heavily upgraded Heavy Mallet, also is a longer engine.
I do not have an A, but the rear cab overhang may be a horizontal curve clearance limitation for some layouts, just as the rear of the cab on the MTH 4-6-6-4 and the Genesis Big Boy may be the limiting issue.
It has a smaller wheel base ( each engine ) but bigger diameter wheels than the 2-8-8-2 so If your 2-8-8-2 is ok than the 2-6-6-4 should be except it will be longer
Anyway here is the pic so you can get an idea of sizes
In addition here is a video of it running with a 4-4-0 on a fanfare setup
