I have a IHC 4-6-4 and got a smoke unit. I installed it and wired it to the motor. When I test the loco it would run for about a minute then stop. Can anyone help me?
[#welcome]
Does the smoke unit work after a few minutes of having the locomotive rest? It could be the fluid may have leaked out of the bottom of the smoke unit.
Many modelers here would advise you to not use smoke units (myself included). The smoke leaves an oily residue in places on your loco and cars.
I used to have an IHC Mikado that did the same as what you are describing. I finally got rid of it because it wasn’t working right.
Are you running the loco on DC or DCC power ? If DCC and the smoke unit is connected to the motor, then the decoder is shutting down from an overload. If DC power, your power pack may be shutting down because it’s overloaded.
Did the locomotive run okay before you put the smoke unit in it?
Do yourself a big favor and take the smoke unit back out. Smoke fluid is oil based and leaves a sticky film over everything in the vicinity of your layout. Smoke in scale model locomotives is just a gimmick the novelty of which soon wears off. Some people are even allergic to the smoke.
What exactly stops? If just the smoke, you need to add more smoke oil and be sure to get it into the smoke unit not down the sides… If the motor stops, you need to check you haven’t dislodged a wire during the smoke unit installation. Is it DC? The combined motor and smoke unit may cause your power pack to overload. Do other trains still run on the same power unit?
HTH
Do you run with DC or DCC?
Wolfgang
I had 2 engines that smoked, the smoke it self lasted maybe 3 minutes on DC. Like others posted it made a mess and was far from looking real. One of my current engines has a smoke unit and I have never used it.
Cuda Ken
Aside from the mess it makes and the short smoke time, Seuthe units will melt a plastic smokestack PDQ. If the loco is stopping, I suspect the smoke unit is overloading the decoder or power pack as others have mentioned.
Thank you for replying to my post. I’ve got several replies telling me to remove the smoke unit. Right now I would rather leave the smoke unit in for now. I’m running the engine on DC power. If the case is that the engine is overloading the power supply . How do you stop the overload? I forgot to mention that the engine is a “Hudson”.
The engine stops, or the smoke stops?
Is that how the instructions said to wire the smoke unit?
Who made the smoke unit?
Had you been running the IHC before you installed the smoke unit?
People here can help you, but you need to most more details! Far as wanting to use the smoke unit, that I understand. But more than likely you will get tired of it like we have.
Cuda Ken
hello Wolfgang - I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back but busy. I am running only one locomotive and it runs on DC. I hope you can help me out. I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.
Warminster RR