MTH railking General locomotive

[Anonymous]

I was wondering how many drops of smoke fluid should I put in? I have been trying to put in 14 drops but it will then smoke poorly like not much air is pushing up the smoke and the out put of the smoke is poor like there is no fluid in the unit untill I turn up the power for a little time then it will smoke well from then on at all power levels. I am useing super smoke. My other MTH engines like the railking GS-4 will take about 20 drops of fluid and smoke well right away. 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you may need to get it serviced. I have the  MTH General and it smokes like a chimney (pardon the expression). Never have a problem with it & have had it for almost 10 years. I have always found it one of their better smokers. Good luck with the engine! Chris

[lionelsoni]

I'll bet you're putting in too much.

[fifedog]

RickR - possibly a burnt wick in the smoke unit.  You could fix this yourself.  Four screws hold the boiler and body to the running gear.  Once inside inspect the wick.  If it looks burnt in one area, you can reposition it and get better function.  If it's a crispy-critter, replace it.

Don't be discouraged partner, this is just part of maintanance, like changing your smoke alarm battery or oil in your car.  BTW, is this a brand new engine, or did you get it secondhand?

[johnandjulie13]

After putting fluid into a smokestack, I have found that sometimes I need to "blow" into the stack to get any air bubbles out. If I don't do this, I have had the same issues. 

Regards,

John O

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the input, I would just like to make an update, I found that just putting 10 drops in works good but I'm still wondering if the wick is in wrong or something but the train smokes great. This engine has be be one of the best looking Rail King engines that were made and the pulling power is realy good.

[spankybird]

Is your engine a PS1 or PS2 engine. With the PS2 engine, the heating element and fan turn off when the engine is in neutral. The PS1 engine, the heating element and fan are on all the time.

 

With a new wick or new engine, you should prime the unit with 40 drops  of fluid. After that, I put in about 15 to 20 drops at a time. MTH engines have a nice big reservoir for their smoke units.

IT does sound like you may have burnt the wick from not having enough fluid in it. A new wick only cost about $1.00 and is every easy to install.

This is a PS 1 engine

 

 

And a PS2  engine with labored smoke on

 

[Anonymous]

Tom,

         Do PS2 smoke unit heaters turn off during passenger station announcements?  I always panic and shut the smoke off when I see the output reduce in neutral or during the PSA sequence.

[spankybird]

On PS 2, IF the engine is not moving, the heating elements are turned off.

[Anonymous]

Tom,

          Thanks for the info.  Now I can quit worrying about turning the smoke off.

[CSXect]

 

 

 

And a PS2  engine with labored smoke on

 

Can your loco hit 88 scale mph how many scale jigawatts can the model flux capacitor take???

[CSXect]

Spanky Bird, where did you find that back to the future car?

[spankybird]

Spanky Bird, where did you find that back to the future car?

 

This was made by Vitesse. It is several years old now.