Hi, I have a good selection of post wat Lionel steamers(2035, 675) and I am using liquid Supoersmoke. It works OK but not great…do the newer ones smoke better? Any certain manufacturers(Williams, MTH?) are better than others? Any particular models that are not too expensive, modern or old? My 9 year old is really into the smoke this year on our Xmas layout and I want to keep his interest up do thanks very much!!!
JT’s Mega - Steam. The best fluid out there.
If you are good at soldering you could unwind a wrap or two off of the heating element. It will make the element hotter and smoke more. It goes into detail I think in Greenberg’s repair manual for postwar trains. I did it to most of my steamers. I went out and bought new heater elements and modified them. Sometime the old ones are brittle with age.
If you want smoke, buy MTH. They outsmoke everything else by a mile. I have most of the major brands and am not partial to MTH, but they do have the best smoke system. For the kids the best in my opionion is the old time 4-6-0 they make in a variety of road names and is one of the least expensive. My young granddaughters love it.
“If you want smoke, buy MTH. They outsmoke everything else by a mile”
not so much. all of my new Lionel’s smoke just fine. here’s proof
JT Megasteam NADA is the bom!
Nothing like the smell of JT’s Mega - Steam in the morning when your child is up before you !!
Must be bacon smell [don’t think they make Folgers]. [^]
Lionel’s little docksider is a good smoker with a low price tag. But if you want room choking smoke that would be MTH. There is a trade off however, MTH engines require a rechargeable battery in order to run.
MTH does have great smoke output, and you can always buy a charger unit to recharge your MTH battery. The charger plugs into the bottom of most diesel engines and the tender on most steam engines, location varies on tenders.
Also Williams by Bachmann has some low price steam locomotives, go to www.bachmann.com and click on Williams.
Lee F.
A big ditto to what John said. When I want lots of smoke I love those little 4-6-0’s. They are fun and relatively inexpensive as well as getting a great response from visitors when run on the club layout.
2035 ? 675 ? They were “Smoke Pellet” locomotives.
“SP” Pellets can be bought from independent suppliers who advertise in CTT, among them “Trainz.com”. Also some Parts Dealers sell liquid smoke units to replace the pellet type that had a flat surface designed to hold an “SP” pellet rather than receive a liquid.
You can use smoke fluid in the pellet type smoke units. If you do a search you will find several threads on packing them with fiberglass insulation to use the liquid. I did this on a 2018 and it worked pretty well.
don
Nothing smokes like an MTH!
Among modern locomotives, MTH does have the best smokers–the Docksider is small and inexpensive and puts out a tremendous amount of smoke.
For older locomotives, I’ve found that Marx 666 steamers are terrific smokers, easily putting the smoke units of Lionel postwar steamers to shame.