I have actually had dark gray smoke from a BLI engine but it came from the tender as the decoder was melting, but that's not what I'm talking about here.
What I'm looking for is a way to get dark gray or black smoke from the stack of a BLI egine. I grew up in PRR country during the late steam era and white smoke just doesn't look realistic to me unless there is snow on the ground and a definite chill in the air.
Is there smoke fluid available that will produce a dark gray or black smoke? Has anyone found something that can be added to normal smoke fluid to produce a more realistic smoke? I've thought of India ink but I'm not brave enough to risk ruining an engine by trying it.
ChuckAllen, TX
I'm not a chemist or anything, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't get hot enough in there to burn anything that's going to emit black smoke.
There are a number of relatively easy ways to generate "thick", "black" smoke from a model stack. They might not use the existing type of heating element to do it, and you'd need a fairly competent and complex fan arrangement to eject it prototypically.
The problem is at the other end: finding out something that gives you that prototypical roiling smoke trail... and then dissipates cleanly into the air. What's going to happen is that the black smoke hangs around, and hangs around, and gives you a black version of that smoke-filled room cigarette blue. Perhaps loaded with <2.5PM with lots of joyful biological nanoactivity...
Something I played around with briefly was adapting the head of an inkjet printer to produce very fine black droplets directly from liquid and eject them more or less cleanly into an appropriately 'turbulated' air stream. If you put very good laminar airflow in your train room with effective electrostatic precipitation, this might be an approach to consider when all the 'hot volatilized liquid' approaches fall short...
Incidentally India ink dries to a plastic-like substance and is NOT suitable for use in inkjet nozzles, any more than it is in split-nib fountain pens. There are other 'extremely black ink' formulas, including some in the calligraphic community, that would prove more suitable for this purpose.
Hi Chuck,
I'm not into smoke units but I would suggest that what you need is something that burns black, not 'is' black (necessarily). The first thing that I would try would be kerosene aka. 'coal oil'. We used kerosene lamps in our cottage and, if the flame was turned up too high, they would produce a very black smoke.
The second thing I would suggest is to not use your prized locomotive to do the experiments with! Buy yourself a couple of Seuth smoke units to play with. All you need is a 12v power supply to run them.
The third thing I would suggest is to have a fire extinguisher on hand!
Let us know if your eyebrows survive
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter Hi Chuck, I'm not into smoke units but I would suggest that what you need is something that burns black, not 'is' black (necessarily). The first thing that I would try would be kerosene aka. 'coal oil'. We used kerosene lamps in our cottage and, if the flame was turned up too high, they would produce a very black smoke. The second thing I would suggest is to not use your prized locomotive to do the experiments with! Buy yourself a couple of Seuth smoke units to play with. All you need is a 12v power supply to run them. The third thing I would suggest is to have a fire extinguisher on hand! Let us know if your eyebrows survive Cheers!! Dave
A fourth precaution comes to mind: "Black" smoke falling on trackside scenery would perhaps be very prototypical but would tend to darken the scenery, obscure details, and otherwise ruin it. Might not be a good idea to do this on a club layout (if you plan to remain a member of that club).
Don't think I'll be trying this in my lifetime. I'll just have to use my imagination a little more.
According to this thread, all smoke fluid is mineral oil. 60 some years ago I liked the smell of my American Flyer. Now, these days do I want to breathe mineral oil?
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
cefinkjrA fourth precaution comes to mind: "Black" smoke falling on trackside scenery would perhaps be very prototypical but would tend to darken the scenery, obscure details, and otherwise ruin it.
That thought occurred to me as well.
I think one has to take into account the risk of fire if you are using an alternate fluid. It seems to me that if black smoke could be produced somebody would have commercialized it by now. Ultimately the safest way to go would be through your imagination.
Has anyone ever tried using dyed cotton wool? I have seen a few pictures with white cotton wool being used to mimic heavy smoke but those pictures were likely staged. I'm not sure how realistic it would look with the locomotive in motion.