Hi. It’s me again. My neighbor gave me a sad looking engine that he did not want any more. I cleaned it up and noticed that one of the contact rollers was missing. I got one and slipped into place. WOW, the engine came alive! Twice around the track and a puff of smoke came out of the smoke stack. Now, here is the question. How can I tell if the unit uses the pill or the drops? The engine is Lionel, dark gray, red stripe and has the number 8141. I believe it to be a PRR steam loco. 2-4-2 My neighbor doesn’t remember. What I guess I really want to know is if I put a drop into the smoke stack and it is a pill unit, will I do any harm to the engine and would it be best to just leave it alone. (If I took the shell off and looked at it, would I be able to tell?) I KNOW THIS WAS A LOT TO READ BUT I WILL BE THANKFUL FOR YOUR INPUT.
I think thats a liquid smoker. Go ahead and put some fluid in it, a couple drops, and see what happens. I put smoke fluid in my postwar engines and they work some.
The 8141 was made in 1971-72; it used liquid in its smoke unit. Here’s a drawing and parts list:
See the heating element and sleeve? These parts are used on units using liquid smoke. BTW, Lionel also has the drawing and parts list for the complete 8141.
Pellet-type units used thin nichrome wire wrapped around a flat mica (?) board. The real telltale was the white residue inside the smokestack where the pellet material re-crystalized.
Once again, you all came through. MANY THANKS.