I have gotten 3 engines new this past year and each one has come with a small bottle of smoke fluid and 2 tractions tires and instructions (I believe for adding smoke fluid to the engine) in a smalll bag thank goodness as the smoke fluid has emptied out in all 3 to where I to cut open and get the traction tires out and throw the rest of the mess away.
I haven’t purchased any new engines this year but this is what came with the smoke unit I put in the Hobo Car. It is a sample of the UNSCENTED fluid available from Train America Studios (TAS). I am VERY impressed with it!..It came in the glass bottle pictured.
Your question does beg the question as to what trains did you purchase and from what manufacturer?
All lionel the latest is the cascade train set ( with 0-6-0 switcher and 3 logging cars) It was sent to me as a gift for the V.A. here in columbia. the other 2 were the NS SD90 and the C&O chessie system set. both from a couple years ago but the containers in both were never opened but empty and leaked out in the packs. (plastic bags were still sealed)
I have had that problem with the regular sized bottles of Lionel smoke fluid. They just leak all over the place and it was only half full when I bought some. However, I never had any problems with leaks in bottles with the MTH protosmoke fluid.
I’ve had the very opposite. [:O]
They should have stuck with the pill. [(-D][(-D][(-D] Just bought a Lionel set for the grandson for Xmas . Guess I better make another trip to hobby shop and get a bottle, just in case!! Ken
RT, I was at train shop to pick up “The Railroad Press” (love that magazine) and they had some set breakups, so I unexpectedly picked up the 4-4-2 steamer and whistle tender from last year’s PRR Flyer set. For $35, I couldn’t buy the motor chassis and smoke unit that cheaply. The smoke fluid and one extra traction tire were in a sealed bag. The smoke fluid bottle was sealed and needed to poked with a pin. So no troubles here. Bottle was not leakings, nor was empty. So, sorry to hear that happened to you.
And as it goes with the usual MTH versus Lionel obserations, I find overwhelmingly from reading the many comments on the all train forums than NEITHER company seems any more immune to such problems or quality control issues. Seems to me, they BOTH have their fair share. More than likely, when you see a thread about an MTH loco being dead or not working, there’s also another thread about the same thing with some Lionel loco.
The ONE thing I do notice, is that the problems seem to be less frequent with the so-called low end items. Maybe too, it’s just we low end buyers don’t write about it as much? I don’t know…
I DO know for all the various comments that low end stuff by anyone or MPC stuff is “junk” my experience tells me it is anything but junk!!!
RT- strange that you had so many. I have never found a leaking smoke fluid bottle in an engine or set. I bought some old but unused smoking cabooses(L) and all tubes were still sealed.
I recall one Kline and one Lionel steamer comming with the “wet” traction tires… I remove those little tubes from the boxes and store them in a tupperware type bowl…Seems that they get brittle from old age a little prematurely…
Oh boy… if that stuff is junk, I had better head to the county courthouse and get a junk collectors permit…