Lionel CC I 773 Hudson Smoke Unit Resistor

First off, lose the sleeve, and you might try a 22 ohm 3W wire-wound resistor if you want a little more smoke.  Lionel has a video on improving the smoke out of older fan driven smoke units.  Basically, you drill out the fan intake hole, improve the wick material, and lose the sleeve.  I usually drop the value of the smoke resistor as it seems everyone I deal with wants more smoke.

Thank you.   Just to make sure...I am okay running the resistor without the sleeve inside the smoke unit?

Obviously I'll keep the lead outside of the smoke unit going to the board insulated.

Yep, that's one of the top recommendations for improving smoke.  Note that Legacy smoke units don't use the sleeve, and Mike Reagan's Lionel video about improving your smoke unit specifically mentions losing the sleeve.

Cool, thank you.   This particular unit is a "puffer" and uses no batting/wicking.

Just the tank to heat up the fluid via resistor.

I just got back from store with some new 22k Ohm 3 watt resistors.   I'll report later when I get the loco on the tracks.

Thanks for the help!

Interesting, Lionel didn't have any info on the website, but this listing specifies a fan driven unit: Lionel 6-18058 Century Club NYC #773

It's not a problem not to have the sleeve anyway, just make sure the hot side of the smoke resistor doesn't short to the smoke bowl.

Interesting indeed.   Mine is definitely Century Club Hudson 773.  Everything in your linked description is accurate except the smoke.  It is the plunger/puffer type.

I just got all back together and am about to test.  I made sure the hot side of the resistor is isolated from the tank, and the hot side lead goes thru the grommet in the top of the smoke unit, then connected to the power lead from the board.  That part has the sleeve.

Probably a mistake on their part, I'm not familiar with that specific locomotive, so I wasn't sure.

John, how does one detrmine what omh resistor one can use in fan driven units? If lets say we want to install a different one than whats in there. I have a legacy lionmaster big boy and just redid the smoke unit. New wick new resistor. Part of the smoke output problem is the cast funnel part that sits on top which is very prone to letting the outlet hole in the pcb get the dreaded muniscis bubble. I need to fabricate somthing better some day and get rid of that part. It smokes ok getting it back to stock.but not as good as the ones I have see you or alex do. I also have the hole enlarged as mike suggested.that got me to thinking maybe a lower ohm resistor would help. Also tested how much fluid it would hold and laid off sick was right it definitely held more than recomended. 

If the smoke unit is not the generic analog one with no voltage regulator, you MUST use the same value smoke resistor as comes stock from the factory.  The regulator is designed for that value smoke resistor.  Those are typically either 6 or 8 ohms.  The ones that come stock with 27 ohm resistors are suitable to "tuning" the resistors.

For your Legacy BB, you need to use the stock resistor.

fyi.   The 22 ohm 3w is installed and my smoke unit is back up and running great!

Good to know. Thanks john.

I just went through the same trouble with my century club hudson. I installed a new 27ohm resistor and a new sleeve, and it now smokes like a champ. I use Mega Smoke. I think my next move will be drilling a larger hole so the puffer will push more smoke out because currently not only does a large amount of smoke come out of the stack, but i have large amounts of smoke coming from the cylinders too! Something the NYC would not want on there locos back in the day :-)

Excellent, Mark.  Glad you got your working again.