The whistle control button should operate the rear coupler on a 228. The smoke does not sound good. In the tender, near the front on the right side, is a slug relay. It works the same way as a whistle relay, except in the 168 and 169 controllers there is no shunt on the rectifier to reduce the current through the rectifier. On the 228 there should be a plug on the left side of the tender that goes into a Jack on the left side of the locomotives brush plate. With that plug in place there is a wire from the operating coil on the front coupler to the operating coil on the rear coupler. That continuous wire has a tap to the accessory shoe on the tenders rear truck (some times not there) and to the contact on the slug relay. With this arrangement energizing either the accessory shoe or the slug relay will cause both the front and rear couplers to operate. This is how the locomotive is designed to operate.
Smoke is not good. First I would look at the wiring. The old wire frequently gets brittle and looses its insulation. The wire to the rear coupler and accessory shoe goes through a hole punched in the steel frame without a grommet to protect it. A worse situation is in the locomotive. The flex wire from the front coupler to the Jack on the brush plate usually looses all of its insulation. That wire always requires replacement. If it is actually the rear coupler coil that is smoking, a much closer inspection is required. Other that a loss of insulation, another reason for smoke could be over voltage. The 227 family of locomotives are strange in that they have a OO reverse unit, which is designed for 12 volts and a 18 volt bulb in the headlight and a 12 bulb in the tender back up light. I have always assumed that Lionel expected us to operate the locomotive at a maximum of about 12 volts.
If the rear coupler coil has failed, watch eBay for a loose truck with a similar coupler and accessory shoe arrangement. With a fair amount of difficulty that rear coupler can be changed from another truck. On the early 228 locomotives the tender coupler is articulated in such a way that it uses a second contact point on the tender frame to keep the box coupler directly above the center rail even on curves. This arrangement is fairly rare and a direct replacement truck would be hard to fine.
On the 227 family of locomotives the front and rear couplers are either missing the barb on the spear or missing the spear completely. This is because to uncouple box couplers it is required that one end of both cars to be uncoupled must be on the uncoupling track as both hoods have to be lifted to separate the cars. With teledyne uncoupling only the hood on the locomotives coupler will lift, so the spear on the locomotives coupler can not be allowed engage the hood on the adjacent car. Because of this, if you replace a coupler on tender with a coupler that was not intended for a 228 tender you will either have to file the barb off or remove the spear completely.
Please let us know how things work out.
