Today I went shopping for shoes. Honest! I did! But a 2035 happened instead! 1951 production and coupled to a 6466WX tender if you're interrested. Has smoke, whistle and Magnatraction, $179 out the door. All's well except the smoke. The stack looks like this:
Should I try to clean this out? Will it clear itself with running? Am I supposed to see more than a flat white circle when I look down the stack? I've never had a pill-type unit with this much build-up before.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Looks to me like someone got too enthusiastic with the smoke pills in the past. I have to plead guilty to that as a kid, like most kids I wanted to get the "Burning of Rome" smoke effect from my steamer like I saw in the movies!
You can try putting the engine on the track and with it in neutral turn the power up almost to the max. If the heating element's still good it may just melt all that smoke pellet residue and then the smoke unit's back in business.
If you don't see any results after a few minutes then try cleaning out the gunk with a soft instrument until you can see the top of the heating element, then try applying power again.
A total tear-down of the smoke unit may be in order for a thorough cleaning. Anyway, those old Lionel smoke units were pretty tough, many come back to life with a good cleaning and wick replacement.
What a coincidence! I went to a train show on Saturday, came home with a Williams Atlantic Coast Line diesel set, and THEN went shoe shopping and bought three pairs!
At DSW, "Da Shoe Warehouse."
Heat will melt it. Turn it upside down and carefully heat it with a lighter, make certain you do not damage the heating element it Might still be good.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Firelock76I wanted to get the "Burning of Rome" smoke effect
Didn't I just read that somewhere? Like in a photo caption in a recent issue of Classic Trains?
Penny Trains Firelock76 I wanted to get the "Burning of Rome" smoke effect Didn't I just read that somewhere? Like in a photo caption in a recent issue of Classic Trains?
Firelock76 I wanted to get the "Burning of Rome" smoke effect
Maybe. The first person to apply the phrase to a spectactular smoke cloud from a steam engine was Lucius Beebe in one of his railbooks, don't remember which one. Anyway, the phrase stuck, from that day to this.
It's one of the reasons ol' Lucius didn't like diesels. With no billowing smoke cloud (or flashing rods and spinning drivers for that matter) a moving diesel locomotive still looked like it was standing still, no matter how well done the photo was.
PS: I just looked up the 2035, the quasi-K4. Good catch!
Well I tried letting it idle for about 10 minutes today and nothing broke through. I'll try heating with a lighter next as soon as I can find something around here to catch the run-off.
I got a lionel hudson from a friend for one hundred dollars.Its not that old its from the 1990s and it has headlight singnal sounds and smoke.It pulls a fair size train to.I gonna have the smoke unit replaced.I just don,t understand why lionel put very weak smoke units in some of their locomotives?Any way I hope you have fun with it.
You could try gently lowering a soldering iron into the stack with the locomotive upright and powered up.
Bob Nelson
One problem, the molten smoke stuff would have nowhere to go but down the vent hole, making a mess inside the loco. Might clog up the vent, and foul the piston.
I use either a heat gun or an old hair dryer that gets very hot (I have both). I remove the shell first and dismount the smoke unit. It is only held on by one screw. If the wire is too short, unsolder it.
I hold the upside-down smoke unit over a pad of newspaper, I do not try to save the smoke stuff.
It's not unusual for smoke stacks to clog like this. Too many pills always the culprate.
Try parking the engine in neautral with the power all the way up. That should eventually start melting the residue off.
Otherwise if all your efforts fail the smoke unit heater is an inexpensive replacement. Personally, I would take the opportunity to gut it out and do a liquid smoke conversion. Pills are OK for authenticity but if you want to really see smoke install a liquid conversion kit and couple it with Megasteam or another premium fluid.
My expectation was that, with the locomotive powered up, anything that the soldering iron melted would land on the heater and be vaporized.
Maybe. In my experience, When a smoke unit looks the way Penny's does, that smoke material is solid, all the way to the bottom.
cwburfleIn my experience, When a smoke unit looks the way Penny's does, that smoke material is solid, all the way to the bottom.
It was practically to the rim of the stack. I was able to crumble it out easily using a bamboo skewer but I didn't want to go too deep and risk breaking the resistance wire.
I was wondering if a hairdryer might work since I don't have a soldering iron. Failing that, I was thinking I could heat a small blunted nail or piece of wire over a candle and melt it out bit by bit.
I'm not worried too much about pellets vs. liquid. In fact, I don't even have any pellets. I've always just used liguid no matter what type of unit locos have. (No early Berks or Turbines with smoke bulbs in my roundhouse)
Put a few drops of liquid smoke fluid it it before heating it up or after cleaning it out to help break the pills down. Should work, or at least help. I run liquid in pill units without issue. But to each their own.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
The hairdryer I use is 1200 watts and gets quite hot. As I wrote earlier, I remove the smoke unit from the locomotive before melting out the old pellets.I hold the smoke unit by the metal bracket with a pair of pliers. It will get too hot to hold bare handed.
Success!
The hairdryer was the ticket. It softened it just enough to let me break it out with a dental pick. Considering that I can see the coil inside the unit very easily, I determined that the pellet wasn't making contact with it. If you look closely at the stack, you can see that the opening isn't round. The unit is out of position and it's housing is partially blocking the stack. I suspect that it just melted and hardened so much over the years that it just formed itself into a plug.
Since I plan to go forward using liquid, I won't bother trying to realign the unit until I open it up for some other reason. But seing as how fantastic it's running, I doubt that will be any time soon.
However, it does "growl".
Penny, I hope it doesn't growl like my tummy. I'm really happy that you got it cleaned out.
G BEAR
God Bless
Looks like you still might have some build-up in the area of the stack towards the E-unit lever.
cwburfleLooks like you still might have some build-up in the area of the stack towards the E-unit lever.
It didn't photograph well. That area is actually the silver housing of the smoke unit. Which is what tells me the whole unit is out of alignment with the stack.
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