Smoke Units

[Firelock76]

Say, I've got a question.  When did Lionel go from the old pill-type nichrome wire heated smoke units to a liquid type, and why the change? 

I'm sure there was a reason, and a good one too.

[ADCX Rob]

1957 was the year the liquid type premiered alongside the continuation of the pellet type locos. The liquid smoke unit was used through 1966, pellet type through 1969.

1970 & after were all smoke fluid equipped.

I would only be guessing, but Lionel probably saw the "handwriting on the wall" with regard to the pellets being mistaken for candy or medicinal pills and caved to using the fluid, as Flyer & Marx had good performance with theirs.

[cwburfle]

A couple of other possible factors:

Maybe the liquid smoke units were less expensive to manufacture.

An employee held the formula for pellets, and supplied Lionel. Maybe they wanted to curtail the arrangement.

I think pellets were last cataloged in 1972 or 1973.
For a while, they became somewhat difficult to find, and costly.
Today there is a company making pellets the smoke and smell like the originals.

[Papa_D]

From a previous post:

There is an article in the January 2003 CTT entitled “The Secrets of Smoke” with a subtitle “What it’s made from and how it works” by Joseph H. Lechner. The initial smoke pellets produced in 1946 to work with the bulb heater were ammonium nitrate. These pellets can actually be somewhat dangerous and should not be used today. This design was quickly replaced the following year by the resistance heater and meta-terphenyl pellets. This material is a waxy solid that was primarily used as an electrical insulator in high-voltage transformers. MPC bought the rights to the manufacturing process in 1970 and produced them until 1973. Lionel began using smoke fluids in 1957. Smoke fluids are oils of varying viscosity with each manufacture adding their own proprietary additional ingredients.

Papa D

[cwburfle]

If you found a container of ammonium nitrate pellets, they would probably be decomposed anyway.
Regardless, it certainly would be foolish to try to use them or recreate them.

At one time even the empty containers for the smoke bulb pellets went for more than a few bucks.

[Firelock76]

Thanks all for the responses!