Recently purchased an older Steamer and inquiring on what type of fluid you could use besides what you find at the Hobby Shop???
I would not recommend using any fluid other that that specifically designed for smoke for toy trains. The smoke unit is basically a heating element like an electric stove or the cigarette lighter in an automobile. Using any other fluid could cause damage, the undesireable type of smoke associated with fire, fire itself, and possibly… the worst case an explosion.
WalMart sells Lamplight Lamp Oil 64OZ for less than $3.00. It will last yor several years and smokes like crazy. It is also available in sents (I have never tried the sented versions).
I use it for all my engines Steam or Diesel’ The repair kits for the smoke units are real cheap
at shows like York TCA. Trainsopray1
I would have to agree with Texas Zepher. I wouldn’t want to ruin an expensive loco trying to save a few pennies, or worse burn my house down. I definately would NOT use lamp oil (this stuff is made to burn) !! I was under the impression that the fluid used in smoking locos was a peanut oil based product, is this true?
Do yourself a favor and get a proper toy train smoke fluid.
Toy train smoke units nearly all work the same way. Mineral oil(or in some cases propylene glycol) is heated to boiling by an electric heating element. It is propelled out by some means or another, where it condenses to form a fog in the relatively cool ambient air. In principle, it’s no different than the water droplets that condense and form a fog in cold weather.
In order for this to work properly and keep everything working smoothly, you need a fairly highly refined oil. Mineral oil can, in general, refer to anything containing a mixture of hydrocarbons with molecular weights in the C10 to C20 range. These all mix together fairly well, but each individual compound has its own unique boiling point.
As the smoke unit heats up, the low molecular weight compounds will boil off first, and then the progressively higher weight ones. At some point, you’ll reach a point where only the higher weight compounds remain. These compounds will generally collect and form a sludge roughly equivelent to vaseline. This sludge will gum things up and impede the proper operation of the smoke unit.
Typically, smoke fluids purpose made for toy trains are very highly refined with all of the molecules within a certain range. In the case of Mega-Steam, as mentioned above, I believe that everything is in the C12-C14 range. This means that all of the fluid will boil very nearly at the same time, thus keeping things clean and moving well.
It certainly is possible that using lamp oil, 3-in-1 oil, or some other fluid not intended for use in trains could start a fire. That would be a very unlikely and extreme scenario, though.
CJ,
Unless you want to spend time cleaning up oily residue all over your layout and track and wheels, I’d would use this:
Your imagination…
Tom
Thanks for all the input, I will be purchasing some Hobby Smoke but still also was just inquiring on what other ideas people have had, from what Paul uses and his Cedar Smoke I think it was…of course I wouldn’t be experimenting on a Pricey item, the one I have is an old 4-6-2 via Ebay for $20 and very happy with this steamer…for now…
Cary