Old Lionel 164 smoke pellets

[Anonymous]

Here is a question for the chemists on this forum. Before introducing locomotives with heated wire style smoke elements (that used SP smoke pellets and later smoke fluid,) ;Lionel generated smoke in the early generation locomotives using a heat lamp with a dimple in the top. That lamp was placed in a smoke chamber and a #164 smoke pellet was pushed down the stack onto the lamp. The nominal heat of the lamp on the chemical smoke tablet produced the smoke. Lionel only used the heat lamp smoke generators for a short time before going to the wire element smoke generators. It is reported that Lionel dropped the 164 smoke pellets as they were highly corrosive and perhaps also toxic. Lionel in fact issued a warning that using the 164 smoke tablets on the newer smoke generators would disolve the wire in them in short order. Does anyone have any idea what substance was used for the early 164 smoke pellets????

[Anonymous]

Go back a few CTT issues to the Q & A column - the writer's reply to a question about make-them-yourself pellets talks about explosives & a ship blowing up in Galveston (he may have mentioned nitrates - I don't remember), then refers to a recent previous article. I can look it up if you don't have back issues handy.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rbcoakley

Go back a few CTT issues to the Q & A column - the writer's reply to a question about make-them-yourself pellets talks about explosives & a ship blowing up in Galveston (he may have mentioned nitrates - I don't remember), then refers to a recent previous article. I can look it up if you don't have back issues handy.

Unfortunately I can't do any look ups as I don't save any modern day train magazines. Room is scarce with all of the other stuff that I have. The reason why I raised the question is that there are Lionel locomotives with the old lamp style generators ( like the 726) still running. Apparently the old #164 smoke pellets made smoke at a much lower temperature that the later SP smoke pellets.
It would be nice to know what Lionel used in the 164 smoke pill formula so that we can get the lamp based smoke units on these engines working up to par. If the formula was explosive and used nitrates as you state, that may explain why the pellets were only sold for a short time. However, I've never read any reports of an old Lionel engines blowing up but nitrate content may explain why the substance was corrosive. In the instruction sheet for the engines with the lamp type smoke units, Lionel advised coating the inside of the smoke chamber with grease to hold down corrosion. Perhaps the mystery of the #164 smoke pellets will go unsolved but it makes for nice speculation and discussion.