Yeah, just figure a 11 by 9 ft. room with 3 steamers smoking. Need to put your fog lights on pretty soon...Btw, here in Germany you can buy the smoke fluid with the scent of hot oil, coal and steel - how close can you get to the real thing?
I let my steamers smoke now and then, but keep the room well ventilated. So far I have not encountered any breathing problems - some glues I use are worse!
I love the smoke coming from the bottom of the loco, or from the cylinders. Maybe they could have it come out of the whistle too! Since everyone is complaining about the smoke, I wonder if anyone has tried to use water and steam for this effect? I also love the smell of coal burning, but that might be a stretch.
How about black smoke coming out of the exhaust from a diesel?
Imagine a Big Boy puffing out prototypical smoke as it goes around a layout! Filling the air with smoke particles, and the average enclosed layout room becoming filled with a smoky haze! Boy what fun! Cough! Cough! Cough! Eyes watering, throat irritation and goodness knows what's happening in your lungs! What fun!
I often wonder if the guys with recent O scale MTH and Lionel engines that have smoke capabilities, with large reservoirs to hold lots of smoke fluid, and fans that force the smoke out in large quantities (steam AND diesels!) actually run them very much when operating on their home layouts.
Our local club has two members who own such equipment, and we've had to ask them not to run the smoke units at our annual shows. The show is held in a fairly large venue - its about 100' by 70', yet the smoke from their trains could be smelled all through the place. Dealers with tables near their layout have complained of having to breathe in the smoke all day during the show, and some members with breathing problems and allergies had problems too. So imagine doing this in a typical small home layout room! Sure sounds like fun!
Thanks but no thanks!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
modelmaker51I don't think H0 smoke has ever looked very realistic even when syncronized, it always looks as you described, cigarette smoke and toy-like, which most H0'ers I think try to avoid. As you also mentioned, the oil residue does get everywhere, track & scenery. With those considerations, smoke is better left to the immagination or Photoshop. Only live steam looks like live steam.
I don't think H0 smoke has ever looked very realistic even when syncronized, it always looks as you described, cigarette smoke and toy-like, which most H0'ers I think try to avoid. As you also mentioned, the oil residue does get everywhere, track & scenery. With those considerations, smoke is better left to the immagination or Photoshop. Only live steam looks like live steam.
www.km-1.de/dynamicsmoke4_3.wmv
and you can see why.
Now that´s not yet quite HO scale, but the guys are working on it for HO as well.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Besides MTH, most locos don't have smoke units, and neither do any of my BLI steamers .
Now I have seen the Athean Big Boy get fitted with a unit, but it doesn't simulate train smoke as well as MTH does on several of their locos, the athearn model produces what looks like thin cigarrette smoke, there is no synchronized chuff and smoke either, just thin whisps, appearing as though they are coming from a moving candle.
I have heard before from others that smoking HO engines are not a good idea because it can leave oil residue throught the engine which can start to mess things up, is this true?
Or do most model railroaders simply consider a smoking engine to be 'toyish', thus making it too much trouble to go into this area in the first place. Is that one of several factors that sets us apart from the Lionel crowd? (obviously the third rail does not to mention the price and space that O gauge requires)
How come most HO people don't seem that concerned about smoking engines? We obviously care about realism and don't consider ourselves to be part of the 'toy train' crowd, and smoking is prototypical for steamers.
Oh, and can you imagine if N or Z scale people wanted smoke? Is that even possible?