Reply to "The question of B units (from AB, ABA, or ABBA sets) in O gauge trains and why they DON'T SMOKE... Did the prototypes not smoke too? Or is this a cost saving / amp draw UL approval issue?"

Norton posted:

Lionel F3s from the early to mid 2000s all have smoke units whether powered or not. That includes A and B units. They also all have one electro coupler and marker lights on the rear. As Sam points out above the smoke units are much more reliable vs the newer ones. No nannies to shut them or the engine down. Three blinks? Forget about it. Worst case is the smoke resistor burns out. Sounds leave something to be desired but if smoke is your thing these are the ones to get.

Pete

Thanks Pete - so these don't suffer from the fans or hearing element shutting down and creating puny output, huh?

Do you happen to know if Lionel put out a WP schemed full scale F3 ABA set with all 3 smoking and reliably back then? I just lost a nice Williams WP F3 set on eBay that I was going to add smoke and Proto-1 to, since that would be easy. Definitely don't care about modern sound quality. Just want some sound and good smoke :-)