I help with a display layout. I’m trying to beat it into the heads of the other members that if your going to run units with smoke units, you need to keep them up with fluid, or turn off the smoke feature. Unfortunately many of the trains don’t have a switch to turn off the smoke unit, while my starter engine from my Lionel PA flyer does. I can’t understand the cheapness to put in a simple switch. To others with club or display units, how do you get it into the midset of others that if they are not kept up, they burn out, as simple as that. Or do you disable the smoke units so your not constantly having to stop trains to add fluid? Thanks, Dave
The people in the last club I was in constantly added smoke fluid. However, most folks ran their own engines so were more likely to remember to add smoke. On units without a switch (older Lionel starter engines) it is often easy to just remove the wire from the smoke element and insulating it with a piece of tape.
Jim H
Dave,
I’ve been to some shows where they have the smoke units running and it was difficult to see anything and there was a lot of coughing going on. Smoke can cause people breathing problems and therefore most displays do not have smoke units on.
Use postwar Lionel engines and let them run dry as desired. The pellet type smoke unit elements are very robust.
Rob