IVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT MOST LIONEL SMOKE UNITS ARE JUNK.
A lot of us find them very good. I for one use them to “smoke” dummies and etc. Just need to know how to “fix” them up. Where in NC are you located? Maybe I can help.
Sounds like a CTT HOW-TO article…Hint Hint[:-^]
I second that motion if pics are included too!
JoeG
I’ve found the old postwar units are tough to kill. Have picked up postwar steamers that sat for years and never ran. After firing them up, they start smoking the old pill residue from long ago.
I agree some of the newer units take some TLC or they burn out.
Just had a new 30050 Mikado loco burn out after about two weeks. Lionel’s sending a RA # throught the mail.
Man was it a smoker though while it lived. I had it running and smoking and looking down on it from above. You could see a bright red glow down the ‘stack’. I cut it off aux1- 8. But it never would come on again.
THe other, all modern, lionels I have are weak to moderate smoker. I would guess they are designed that way for long life.
The ones I put in dummies, I “throttle” back on the voltage as I am suing them in command [18V]. If you don’t they smoke like the “devil”. Bob Nelson helped me on the first one I did. He got me to use bridge rectifiers to reduce the voltage. They still smoke really good for diesel. They are still going. Red glow seems too hot. I have found that most people do NOT use enough smoke fluid. Too afraid to add enough due to manufacturer’s instructions. Also, if you use Mega Steam, better keep adding as it will burn up fast and char your wicking and element. I’ve gone back to using the manufacturer’s brand for each one [Lionel and MTH].
I load mine up with fluid. Mostly out of fear of burning it up. The one that was glowing was still smoking good although on the down slope. Thats why I cut it off immediately when I saw that ‘glow’. I hate it died as the smoke rings it blew were ‘a thing of beauty’.
The weakest is the Super O Hudson TMCC. It is really weak. Only way to get it to produce easy to see smoke is to push aux1 and hold down 9 continuously. I just don’t pay much attention to it. It needs work but since its may still be under warranty I can’t mess with it and don’t know that Lionel could/would do anything for it since technically it will smoke lightly.
Chief, putting smoke in diesels is a good idea. I have FM which for entertainment value would benefit from a smoke unit.
well cheif im from hickory. ive found my postwar smoke units very reliable. after some research and tinkering ive managed to get all my tmcc smokers to really put it out.used the pink insulation and cut the sleave off really helped out. thanks for all the help youve already provided.
Cat…Although not a problem with postwar smokers, the fans in some of the Lionel locomotives are running in reverse including their Hot Box Reefer Cars.
BUCKEYE,
Yes the smoke units with the fans in it are sometimes in reverse, but an easy fix. By just opening up the smoke unit and switching the wires. This was in a CTT magazine article a few years back. I had to do it to some of my SD90s.
laz57
I guess if you want a smoke unit that fills the room with smoke and chokes you to death, then they are junk. The heavy smokers I usually have to turn off after a couple laps. A lionel on the other hand smokes just enough for me to see and I’ll go with that.
Gang, do not know where your layout is located. Mine is upstairs with attic above. I installed a bathroom exhaust fan [wiht damper] in the ceiling and exhaust the smoke out through the gable end vent close to that room [did not want to cut a hole through the side of the house. made bracket to hold pipe right against gable end vent]. Hit the switch and on comes the exhaust fan and out goes the smoke.
Chief, it seems it would be more practical to install a fan driven smoke unit next to the gable vent. That way you would eliminate the bathroom fan and all that ductwork.
EJN
I didn’t think my PWC Super O Hudson smoked very well either when I first got it. But after reading several posts on the subject, I found that due to a very large fluid reservoir, you have to put in several drops of smoke fluid in to get it to smoke properly. My 773 now puffs a steady stream of light smoke every time I run it. I believe that the owners manual says to put in about 6-8 drops at a time. I put in about 15 drops at a time and that seems to do trick.
Now my PWC 746 is a different story. When it’s working, it puffs big clouds of white smoke, much more than my PWC 773 does. But that’s only when I can get it to work. Otherwise, I can’t get it to smoke at all until it decides to start working again.
Jim, I’ve put as much as a half of a megasmoke dropper in the 773’s stack at a time. I’m just not getting enough heat. Its only if I motor around holding down the 9 button that it start generating lots of smoke.
Half a dropper load is obviously too much as it takes a while for this to run down to where the right ratio of wick to fluid is reached and the fluid starts smoking off at any noticable rate.
I’ve got the PWCS 776 as well at its a better smoker. Go figure!
Too much fluid cools the resister and so you will get less smoke not more. A lot of overfill and no smoke at all.
I did overfill the 773’s unit before and I had a mess. It wouldn’t smoke very much and the fluid leaked out all over the chassis and down onto the tracks. After the unit got hot enough, small droplets of fluid would spew out of the stack and collect on the boiler shell. Now if I put in about 12-15 drops of Lionel smoke fluid in the 773 when the unit gets low, it smokes just fine.
It seems like the smoke units on all three of my PWC steam engines operate differently. My PWC 736 smokes great, but when I press aux 9 for smoke boost, the fan doesn’t turn to blow out extra smoke while the engine is idling like my other PWC steamers do. But while the engine is running at speed, the boost button will increase smoke intensity quite a bit.
My 736 does the same regarding aux9. I had hoped it would do like the 773, which is you push aux9 and the fan comes on and it heats up to produce more smoke. The 736 smokes better overall and aux9 heats it up for even more. I’ve always thought it was bad for it to hold the 9 button down. I thought you just pushed aux1 then 9 and let off. This cut the smoke on. If lionel would standardize it would help. They should all be set up like 773 by may way of thinking.