K-Line 4-6-2 Info needed

[choochin3]

Hello Folks,

I have a K-line 4-6-2 that was given to me today,and I have a few questions about it.

Do I need a special button to blow the whistle?(It wont work with my CW 80)

The smoke unit doesn't work,I added fluid to the smokestack but no smoke.(is there another place to add smoke fluid?)

This is one of ones made from the old Marx tooling for the 333,and has the updated smoke unit with the flared rim on the smokestack.

 

Thanks,

Carl T.

[tim o'm]

While I can't imagine that any K-Line steamer was made without a whistle, check your tender's underside. There should be a hole, approximately the diameter of a cigarette, with slits in the casing. If you have this casing with slits, you have a whistler. It might need a cleaning, so check for obstructions, such as dust, cobwebs, spider egg sacks, or others. While running several trains with my CW-80 this year, a lot of my steam engines wouldn't respond to the whistle button, but would blow the whistle when I hit the bell button. You are supposed to put the smoke fluid in the smoke stack. Perhaps you need 10-15 drops to prime it if she hasn't run in a while. If the person who gave you the engine ran it a lot without smoke fluid, or left it on a shelf a long time, the smoker wick might be dried out. I have my K-Line 4-6-2s for 15 years(Hershey's), and 6 years(Reading). Storage didn't dry out the wick. If you absolutely need smoke you may need to replace the smoke unit. They don't usually come back to life if the wick is burnt out. Good luck with your engine. Let us know how it turns out.

[lionelsoni]

Older Lionel whistles respond to a DC component added to the track voltage by the whistle control.  They respond to either polarity of DC.

Newer locomotives respond to a center rail that is more positive than the outside rails by blowing the whistle, and to a negative center rail by ring the bell (if any).

The CW-80 transformer was originally wired strangely.  When the U terminal was wired to the outside rails and the A to the center rail, the whistle (and bell) would work properly; but the transformer could not be used normally with many accessories when connected this way.  Swapping the wires corrected the accessory problems, but also swapped the whistle and bell functions.

Newer CW-80s are wired reasonably, so that, with the U connected to the outside rails and A to the center rail, accessories work and the whistle and bell functions correspond to the labels on the controls.

Swapping the wires or using the bell control may get your whistle to blow.

[brianel027]

Carl, as wasmentioned in a review in CTT some years ago, you need the K-Line whistle button control unit to make the whistle sound. Even the review mentioned this was one unfortunate thing about the locomotive, which is otherwise, a nice running and good pulling steam engine. The control unit is K-952 and comes with the button and a power adaptor.

K-Line used the Seuthe smoke units in these steams and unfortunately they have a tendency to burn out after a while. I personally don't like the Seuthe smoke units for their lack of longevity. Williams also used them in their steam locomotives. The Seuthe units are also sensitive and tend to operate better using only the Seuthe brand fluid.

The K-Line service manual instructs that if you have trouble with the smoke unit, first drain the smoke fluid out,then you can try putting a small amount of WD-40 in the smoke unit and operate it unit the smoke stops. After the unit has cooled, then flush it out with a electronic contact cleaner. Then try the smoke fluid.

The only thing left for you to do is to replace the smoke unit.

You can check with Brasseur:

http://www.brasseurelectrictrains.com/service/kline/kline.asp

The smoke units start with a 3003- number and will set you back $32.00. There's also a resistor board that you might need. You might call Brasseur and ask for their advice. Maybe they know of another route you can take. There are other cheaper motorized smoke units, but I don't know if they wikll fit in the space. They might also have the K-952 whistle controller, though I didn't see it listed.

You could also just replace it with another Seuthe unit, which if you were lucky, you might find one at a train shop so you could compare sizes. Aristo-Craft also makes smoke units for their G-Scale trains which certainly might work. I've had pretty good luck with those.

Bachmann also makes an outstanding smoke generator unit, which I use in buildings. I like these a lot. The trouble with those would be how to mount it in the loco. And you would need some kind of resistor to use the Bachmann unit, since the voltage the loco takes would probably burn out the Bachmann unit.

Another thought might be to try a Model Power brand smoke unit. They make one that is the right size for the K-Line steamer, though your resistor board would be needed or another resistor would have to be used. I have a Model Power smoke unit installed in one of my K-Line diner buildings which works off an auxiliary transformer at around 6-8 volts. I've had it for years and it works fine.

Also to get the puffing effect out of any non-puffing smoke generator, you'll need to use a smoke fluid made for a puffing effect. Seuthe makes a fluid that does this.

Hope this helps.

[choochin3]

Thanks for the advice guys,

I will try some of the suggestions you have reccomended,though I'm not really pressed about the smoke,I do want to get the whistle working.

Thanks Again,

Carl T.