Train Smoke?

[TXT]

can anyone tell me how to make my engines blow black smoke instead of it being white??????????

[MartyE]

At this time I don't know that anyone has come up with a way to do that.

[TXT]

In an issue of a o gauge train mag there is a steamer (mth i think) in a picture some one sent in. And it is blowing black smoke! My coworkers pointed it out, I never noticed it before!  

[Buckeye Riveter]

Several years ago this same topic was address on the forum, but the discussion was due to a photo posted by Spanky Bird.  It appeared, and very convincingly that Spanky's MTH engine was billowing out a gray-black looking smoke.  Of course since I have visited Spanky's layout I knew that his engines only put our the normal white variety, but in very heavy quantities. 

Needless, to say, a few people were very convinced by the photo that the smoke was gray-black, until they were told that the lighting and the background in the photo were the cause.  Here is one of Spanky's engine photos.  I will guarantee you the smoke is as white as snow when you see it in person.  When a photo is taken at certain locations on his layout, the smoke appears to be darker.  He has a really good camera and might be over exposing the shot under the florescent light.

[TXT]

I knew I would find the answer here! thanks! I'm going to try and find that picture and upload it so every one can see.And judge for themselves. Why has'nt anyone been able to formulate a non toxic,non staining black smoke?   

[spankybird]

AS Buckeye has stated, my gray and black smoke is really white with tricks on lighting.

If you were to have black smoke, it wouldn't be good for you to inhale.

 

[chuck]

Why has'nt anyone been able to formulate a non toxic,non staining black smoke?  

Real steam locomotives only produced "black" smoke when something was wrong with the combustion process.  If the engine was running at peak efficiency the main component going up the stack would be waste water vapor (primarily exhaust steam from the cylinders and some from the combustion process itself) and CO2.  Black smoke indicated particulate matter and incomplete combustion (aka wasted fuel).  I have seen photo's of J-3 Hudson's running at speed with no discernable smoke output, not even visible steam.  There was a heat plume but the winter air was so dry the steam did not even have a chance to condense into water vapor.  Even water vapor isn't "white", it just difusely refracts the light so it appear "white".