A LOOK AT LIONEL'S CAB FORWARD INSIDE THE BOILER//PICTURES

Hello everyone,

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!

 Thanks for all the great replies, and info. This turned into a great thread .

Alan I love to open up engines, and take a look inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There will be more in the future.

Thanks,

Alex

Hi Sean,

As soon as I get my Boy Big I will open her up, and get a look inside. I will post some detailed

photos of all areas. I can't wait .

Alex

Great Post Alex. I've noticed some variability in how much smoke fluid is pre-loaded in the factory on smoke units. Which is why I want to be on the conservative side first time out when putting in fluid.

When running the Diesels I started using the Seuthe or other syringes that I could get a good solid measure on the amount of smoke fluid in the unit. You just can't get the fluid in drops, down the grill and into where it needs to be (the batting), so I just started using syringes and filing off the sharp point. And then started to use them on steamers as well.

Some engines just handle more than others. I usually put 1/2 to 1 cc or ml in the fill point, sometimes even more. Jon & Mike have both pointed out that the resisters reach higher temps when use of a particular smoke unit is used more frequently or when the settings are adjusted higher. It is very possible to "drown" a smoke unit too. You need fluid + Air to make smoke, not fluid + fluid. Yah I've drowned a few... did one just last week on one I thought the reservoir was low the last time I ran it (a week ago) and ended up having to turn the Loco upside down for a while and blowing slobber fluid out. I didn't have to pop the shell & clean up the mess though But I've had to do that in the past as well.

If your locomotive works fine and everything's ok, great, have fun and enjoy the play. For most of us out there including me (which I do a lot or almost all of my own repair) I go by this simple motto... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Just maintain it.

Thank you for sharing! Your a great enthusiast of the hobby.

Jim, very nicely put post, and i thank you for the kind words

Alex

If the element gets hot enough that the internal heat can melt plastic not in contact with element, I would think the wick would be charred and the PCB would have visual signs of the overheated condition.  Unless the wick was never in contact with the element and it just became a space heater.  Interesting.  G

Yeah, there's a lot about this that is puzzling and if Marty Fitz says that he is seeing this on other models my best guess is that it's not a design defect but a bad batch of plastic impellers.

I'm about to tear down a 3rd Rail smoke unit (my holiday project) and I'll look carefully at what is used in that and the MTH unit I am planning to use to replace it. 

Merry Christmas Alex, can't wait to see inside the Big Boy!

 Upon further review:

Thanks to Alex I got the shell off real quick. Pretty simple.

Smoke bowl was bone dry, nothing burnt up. Fans looked good. Bench tested the engine on a roller stand and both fans work, and resistors get hot.

Soaked the batting while at the bench. 

The smoke unit is sitting on a paper towel with the shell off to hold it upright, as it fastens to the shell.

Main smoke and whistle smoke: 

Smoke while sitting idle:

Works just fine! It did take several minutes for it to really heat up and start putting out a large volume of smoke as seen in those pictures.

The thing is, I put a ton of fluid in there... or what I thought was a ton of fluid. It don't last, and dries up sitting for a few days. There was fluid all over the place because putting drops in the funnel just gets everywhere. I don't think there is a good seal between the PCB and the bowl either, with the shell off, I can see fluid trickle down the outsides of the bowl when the engine is running. Maybe I just flooded it really well.

I am glad I opened it up though so I could see what's going on, and know for sure, that nothing is burnt up, and my problem was just a lack of fluid in the batting.