I know that the pills can’t be cheaply found anymore. If a smoke unit is working perfectly, can I drop the modern smoke fluid on it to make my loco puff?
Thanks,
Cacau
yes
thanks!
What’s the proper amount or number of drops? Is one brand of fluid preferred over another? What about other pill-type smoke units; can they accept fluid too? Thanks
I use 3-4 in mine. All the pill types can use it, but only in small amounts as they were not designed to hold fluid. Some guys have put insulation in them to soak up the fluid and smoke more. You can also change the unit out for a replacement fluid type unit. You will need to put a switch in it then or use fluid everytime or it will burn out.
Roger
5 or 6 at the time. Don’t flood but don’t let it dry out either. I use Lionel or MTH. Use to use JT Mega Smoke but too thin and leaves residue if you use scents. Yes, I use drops in all of my Post Wars aand conventionals with smoke units.
Sure they were. The smoke pellet is just cold, hardened smoke fluid, becoming liquid when heated.
Using pellets, it was very easy to overfill them and the material would spill out/over, harden & block the air flow, & bind up the piston. Using liquid to start with, an overflow is much easier to detect & clean up. Keep your pellet-type unit - they are much more robust than liquid-only smoke units.
Rob
If one does not use smoke fluid over a period of time does it damage the units? I have a prewwar steamer that has never had smoke pellets in it since I can remember. Not sure about when dad was younger. Also have some post war and current models that I have never used fluid in. Have a new 0-8-0 that also has never had fluid in it but recently I did add some and it hardly smoked at all. I have since had the engine apart and there was smoke fluid inside. Again, did I damage the units by not using smoke right out of the box?
Thanks guys!