I'm pretty sure this was sometime in the last century and before OGR switched hosts...so the thread(s) are gone...but there was a point in time where someone identified where you could buy the smoke fan motors for less than $1 a piece IIRC.
All I remember is the DC motor is the FF-N20 which is a Mabuchi Motor Co. design and widely copied. If you google FF-N20 you'll find hundreds of variations. The key is to find the magic suffix numbers/letters. Such as FF-N20xx-xxxxx. I don't recall how you translate the suffix characters to shaft length, voltage, speed, etc. but someone found where to get the "correct" replacement part without paying the Lionel/MTH price...and I got my lifetime supply!