I am a HO scale train modeler. I have purchsed BLI UP big boy & also have 2 nos Seuthe # 99 smoke units. Can someone tell me the procedure of instaling it in Big Boy?
As from some information , it needs just connect two wires of smoke unit to acess rail current. But my queries starts there itself :
How to dismental the body of Big boy to do this work ?
My DC transformer delivers 1.5->12V DC supply @ 1000mA current rating. If, I have to add any resistor in series to reduce current value?
Actually how to connect the smoke units to rail power ?If anyone has some document specifing the steps of doing this ? If yes, I will be the happiest person to request for me.
Find out what the maximum voltage that smoke unit can handle. If it can handle the the maximum voltage output of your transformer then it will be a direct paralel connect into your engines wiring +/-.
Saying that: I personally would recommend that you really think hard on this before you go any further. The smoke issue has been discussed in detail in the past with many of us discouraging it. Mainly because of the following issues:
It’s messy, oil gets on the body and stains it, it gets on the tracks causing it to get slippy and covered in “gunk”
The smoke smells and can fill up a room to make it look more like a Brothel full of sailors and lord knows what
Many years ago, in the 1970’s, I installed a Seuthe into a metal Bowser kit locomotive. Personally, I would never try to install one into a plastic locomotive because they get very hot and can melt your superstructure if you don’t allow for sufficient air flow around it.
Also, as already pointed out, they spew oily smoke fluid over everything and can be a real nightmare. Smoke fluid stinks. Some people are allergic to it. It will coat everything in the vicinity of your layout with an oily film. It doesn’t look realistic at all to have a large steam engine that spewed huge volumes of black smoke emitting a light, wispy white cloud that can barely be seen. If it’s allowed to run dry, it burns out.
I had two Bachmann GS-4 with smoke, looks child like and does make a mess. Plus they only make smoke for a few minutes. Never had a problem with any smell.
I all so have a PCM Big Boy with smoke, it never worked, go figure. From what I was told by BLI your Blue Line body is made from the same tooling as my PCM. If that is correct there is a small round cover not quit in the center on top of the engine, you pry it off. There is a screw under it, that holds the shell on.
Thanks. I got the screw & also could open the top shell. Looks like from wight of the top shell that its made of casting but not sure abour smoke stack region.
Any idea about heating of the plastic parts due to seuthe smoke units after instalation ?
Any idea about a need of fitting a resistor in series with seuthe smoke unis if used?
Yes got your point. But then how these somke units are been used by PCM in UP big boy !!
May be having smoke fluid in unit to the correct level, can drop down the temperature of unit to modelrate level !! I have raised few of such queries to BLI team as well, let see what they respond to that.
Smoke units are best left to larger scale toy trains like Lionel and American Flyer (I actually love the smell, and AFAIK it hasn’t hurt me none [:-^]). As has been said, the oily residue will attract dirt to your wheels like a magnet, and the heat is something to be very concerned about. Years ago I tried replacing the smoke unit in a Bachmann 4-8-4 with a Seuthe unit that the LHS assured me was plastic safe. It started melting the stack on the first test run. I’ve also seen old HO steam locos with smoke units whose boilers have become brittle and fractured due to the smoke oil.
Besides, you’ll need two units for the Big Boy because of the dual stack, and even that isn’t going to come close to the exhaust from the real thing.
I have a sawdust burner on my HO scale modules. I made it with a Seuthe smoke generator to give the effect of it in operation. When it worked, it was neat, a bit of wispy smoke coming up through the top. I had an on-off switch for the unit but getting busy at train shows meant that I forgot to turn the unit off at times, and it used up all of the smoke fluid and destroyed itself. I replaced the unit three times, but when the third one quit too, I gave up on it.
So having one in a loco would require a switch to turn it off, and keeping a good eye on the loco when it was in use to be sure it still had smoke fluid in it. The one had would only hold a few drops of fluid, so it could be a busy proposition.
And the few puffs of wispy white smoke out of a Big Boy would not be all that great!
When I got my Athearn Challenger a couple of years a go I bought two Seuthe #9 smoke units , as recomended by Athearn. It took a bit of juggling to get both units working, and 50% of the time only one would work at a time. I only got them for my grandson’s enjoyment, and since he’s only here 4 or 5 times a year, the loco was run a bit without filling the smole fluid, and it stopped working altogether!! Even when both worked, the smoke was not 5% of what the real Challenger produced!! They were not cheap, and certainly not worth the cost or effort!![:(!]