C&O 8603 Smokestack

[Old Jimbo]

Hi all.  First, thanks for all the info over the years.  This is a great forum.

A few years ago, I got a C&O 8603.  It's in pretty good shape, but I never got time to get it out of its box and run it.  I finally got all the millions of pieces of my childhood layout back together, and I want to run it for the kids.  

I tested it and it runs great.  I haven't hooked up the tender to electric yet bc I want to get into it before I short out the Sound of Steam.  I guess I have to insert a layer of foam or something so it doesn't short out.

So I was about to add some smoke drops, but before I did, I looked in and saw what looks like a piece of insulated wire.

It's weird bc my other MPC era engine, a C&O 8142 doesn't have a wire in there.  So before I added smoke drops, I wanted to run this by you guys.  I looked at the 8603 exploded diagram and I'm worried that one of the wires that run around there may have gotten loose or something.  Or is this normal?

Thanks guys!

Jim

ps, I took a picture of the wire in the smokestack. but I can't figure out how to post it.

[Old Jimbo]

[View:https://plus.google.com/photos/115798209386586295650/albums?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/yourphotos?pid=6091318037145557106&oid=115798209386586295650:600:0]

[ADCX Rob]

Completely normal. That's the smoke unit element.

[ADCX Rob]

Here's what the element & sleeve look like:

[Old Jimbo]

Great, Rob, thanks!