Smoking or non-smoking?

[Ray Dunakin]

Most locos come with smoke units, but I wonder how many people actually use them?

[Anonymous]

You have a good point, however i usualy do if i have visitors to show them what it can do. When my grandson Andrew is visiting we run smoke all the time; as he likes it and has the energy to keep the fluid up to it. I have three locos that smoke. the others are two electric and one diesel.


Rgds Ian

[ttrigg]

Had some bad experience with HO indoors (1970's, I sure things have improved since then) and have not yet had the desire to do so since moving outside.

[Puckdropper]

The smoke unit on my Porter doesn't put out enough smoke for me to really consider using it. Plus, being outdoors you've got wind to consider so the little wisp of smoke just doesn't show up well.

[tangerine-jack]

Non-smoking section for me please![:D]

I never bothered to use it, it just doesn't look right to me. But to each his own, if you like it use it.

[whiterab]

Ran a smoking unit just this weekend.

As soon as the pressure in the boiler got up to 20 pounds, I cleared the cylinders and she started spitting and smoking a bit. At 40 lbs of pressure, I opened the throttle and got this nice cloud of puffing steam[8D]

[BudSteinhoff]

I guess I am big on smokers.
I converted most all of my locos to Aristo smoke units, plenty of smoke outdoors.
The MTH locos have big time smoke also.
Experimented with all brand smoke fluids to get the most smoke and least amount of wick clogging. Aristo won.
I guess I like to see all of them smoke and have sound which to me makes it more interesting to watch.
Bud[8D]

[Tom The Brat]

I run mine now and then, but mostly not.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Normally only use smoke when at a club setup for the public, or during open house! Once in a while when company drops by and we want to sit around with a cuppa and shoot the breeze I might use smokers!

Grandkids and I don't really care that much about smoke!

[vsmith]

Pass, never looks real, smells wierd, brings back childhood memories of colliding Lionel trains...

[Anonymous]

Every now and then . BEN

[Anonymous]

Everyday, I boycott establisments that done allow it. I guess i'm just socially unacceptable[}:)]

[devils]

I ripped the smoke unit out of a couple of engines and put the sound unit in the smokebox instead, much better effect.
When they can pump out smoke like a dry ice machine I might get interested but I hate the oily residue on the loco from unburnt oil.
NO SMOKING section.

[pimanjc]

Steam - Yes.
Diesel - No.
JimC.

[Puckdropper]

Gee devils, I wonder...

Why not get some dry ice for use in the loco? If it stays in chunk (say 3/4") form for long enough, you could simply add water and every so often you'd have to stop to get more... A reefer would be another place to put ice, but you don't want those to smoke!

[Tom The Brat]

You need enough water volume that the dry ice doesn't freeze it.

For the 1:6 scale train I didn't get to build, I figured on mounting a fan and the transducer from an ultrasonic humidifier... Takes a 48v 1.4MHz 1a signal to operate one of those.

[Anonymous]

In my opinion the diesel smoke units look like they have had a turbo failure and would only work on the Rock Island, and yet I dont use them for the RI -the smoke is too white it would need to be black smoke for a turbo failure (or a GE unit). Does anyone know how to make the smoke units produce black smoke??? If so I may leave a smoke unit in some future engine and paint it to look like a turbo failure, black smoke everywhere from it, now that would be nice..... Steam is a different matter, but as of yet I dont own any.....

[MTCarpenter]

I've got an Aristo 0-4-0 that when using the Aristo brand smoke puffs ok. Me and my son get a kick out of it, and it works pretty good, although I was going to post a topic to see who uses what to get thicker smoke.

If you get a chance, and I know that this isn't a Thomas the Tank Engine forum, check out this link which gives the "formula" that they use on the show to get such thick smoke.

http://melgarvewarrior.tripod.com/sodorisland/behindthescenes.html

I'm trying to figure out how toxic that stuff is and specifically how they built their smoke units.

[piercedan]

I let mine smoke once in a while, not all the time.

[Tom The Brat]

TOC has a sign at his place:

NOTICE
Smoking required in this area

[Anonymous]

I always have the smoke units going, to me they look much better....[8D], especially the new aristo ones. My lgb sv mallet on the other hand is a very very poor smoker[}:)], i'd like to install a aristo unit, but iam not sure about the compatibility...[8]

[BudSteinhoff]

daniel,
I have installed the Aristo smoke unit in the SV Mallet.
It was an easy fit and and You can run it from track power or if you have on-board receiver you can run it from the motor power.
Looks much better with much smoke.
Bud[8D]