@gunrunnerjohn posted:I think a lot of folks know "how" to make black smoke, the real question is, do you want to live with the consequences! Black smoke contains particulate matter, it will quickly make your whole train room and layout a black mess! What do you think all that grime on locomotives is? You guessed it, particulate matter from the black smoke!
Smoke as it stands now is a particulate. Specifically a condensate. The heating chamber vaporizes an oil into a gas, which will is clear, which then cools as the gas leaves the stack and condenses into oil droplet "smoke" observed. Similar to water steam. Thus, one is still breathing in a particulate. The particulates are liquid condensed oil droplets rather than something like a solid ash. The oil is colorless and so the smoke is colorless. Black oil is oil with dispersed carbon particulates. In concept, if designed correctly, one could use water as smoke fluid as it would be the same chemical phase transition and would give the same visual appearance that we see now with oil.
The black smoke that is observed leaving from either diesel or steam locomotive exhaust ports is mainly uncombusted carbon. Thus, black smoke is an indication of inefficient operation as that carbon should be used in the combustion process produce energy to propel the locomotive. Particulate carbon would be far worse to breath and get into the lungs and and as stated would make much more of a mess to the layout than the current technology.
