Poor Smoke output from K-Line TM Diesel

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I just got a new K-Line Trainmaster locomotive with no sound but it does have smoke. It smokes great while sitting still but very shortly after it starts to move little to no smoke comes out. Does anyone know if this is a trait of K-Line smoke units or a defective smoke unit. It is a fan driven unit.

Kevin

2

Fan turning clockwise or counter clockwise? Counter clockwise is correct. If wrong, reverse wires.

3

First thing to check would be the condition of the wick. If it’s charred, that will adversely affect smoke output. Also, you may want to make a mod to the unit to increase it’s smoke output. Lionel has a video on their site that describes modifications to fan driven smoke units to increase performance. Basically, it’s drilling out the intake hole to 1/4" and removing any sleeve around the heater and repacking the chamber with new wick.

As stated above, some of these had the fan wired backwards, so that’s something to check as well.

4

Would the wires still be backwards even if it still smokes sitting still? The loco is brand new I wasn’t sure if I should mod the smoke unit or not.

Thanks

5

It smokes ok standing still, sounds like not enough voltage when running. Try giving it more cars to increase the load. I have a K-Line TM with TMCC smokes real good.

6

If you want more smoke output from a conventional locomotive, sometimes the solution is to add a couple of diode pairs back to back in series with the motor. This reduces the voltage getting to the motor and allows you to have more track voltage for the same speed. Since the smoke unit is wired directly to the track pickups, it gets more voltage as well.

7

There two motors so would I put them on both and what type of diodes do I use? I am not very good at eletronic but I am guessing they should be connected to the pickup wires and the diodes should be pointing in the direction of the motors?

Kevin

8

Chances are very good that your motors are wired in parallel; so you can treat the parallel pair as if it were a single motor.

The diodes are wired in an anti-parallel pair, that is, with the cathode of each diode connected to the anode of the other diode. Then you put as many of these as you need in series with each other and in series with the motor(s). Something like this is appropriate: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062591

However, I usually recommend using a bridge-rectifier device instead of individual diodes. The bridge rectifier is not used as a rectifier, but as a handy package with 4 diodes inside. Connect the + and - terminals together, then wire the ~ terminals in series with the motor(s). This is equivalent to 2 anti-parallel pairs. Here is a suitable bridge rectifier: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062580&filterName=Brand&filterValue=RadioShack

Another possibility is simply to wire the two motors in series rather than parallel. However, this cuts the motor voltage in half, effectively doubling the voltage to the smoke generator, and may slow the locomotive down more than you like. You might give it a try and see what you think.