I'll admit it. I was dumb.

Interesting story - something like that has happened to us all.  Some days we just shouldn't touch anything.  It looks like nothing really bad occurred, so . . . 

It's typical to get a bubble which prevents smoke vapor getting out. We just blow down the stack with a puff of air using the pipette or your lips.

Every time I fill the smoke, I give the stack a little blow.

FWIW, with a new locomotive with a dry smoke unit, I've found that I need pretty much a full dropper of fluid from the JT's Mega-Steam bottle dropper.  After they've been primed and smoke output falls off, I use half a dropper.

Incidentally, I can't count the number of repairs I've gotten that have had the interior soaked with smoke fluid. 

Your story really helps me not to feel so bad about all my stupid events.  Some days you feel like no one else could be as big a moron as you are and it some how helps when you learn that you have company.  Thanks for sharing.

Art

I blow into the stack a couple of times also.  When running a new locomotive or one which has been on the shelf for awhile, I put the required amount of smoke fluid in and let it sit overnight, add a few more drops and away we go.  I haven't had a problem with this method.  But sometimes I forget that I turned off the smoke unit on the remote.....oops!

Steve, Lady and Tex

MIke Reagan advises that we should always use the little Lionel funnel to add fluid, because that helps prevent the formation of bubbles. He also says that when the smoke unit runs low on fluid, we should shut it off for a while and allow it to cool before adding more fluid. When fluid is added to a hot smoke unit, it can form a kind of temporary crust on the wick that will inhibit smoke output until the unit is allowed to cool and then reheated. All this is in Mike's videos on the Lionel site and he has also posted about smoke units here on the forum. 

I always add fluid while the smoke unit is running.Just blow in it.No problem.Nick

JP,

I had trouble with my first smoke unit too.  Mine was puffing away nicely on the first run.  Evidently the wick wasn't completely saturated, and soon I had smoke coming out of the sides and the stack.  Yes, I singed the wick.  Reading the replies I know I didn't put enough in for the first run.  My second problem is that I can't run the smoke units in the house.  I only run them on fastrack on the patio, since the smoke alarm goes off and calls the fire department.  When I told them it was okay, it was me, they said okay, another cooking fire, no problem, and walked away.  So I guess it went down in the report as a cooking fire.