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I find that Lionel premium produces the most smoke.

As far as the scents go. - Not crazy about the unscented but the chocolate smells nice and strong.

pine and wood fire smell ok in bottle but produced little smell in use.

found the sugar cookie scent smelled great but was actually “thicker” than the other scents they offered so I set it aside as I didn’t want it to clog the unit.

Matt Makens posted:

Gary, there must be 4 rolls of duck tape on that exhaust line

No exhaust line.....just tape

  What I use depends on the loco. Thinner stuff where I don't need to refill every 3 loops, thicker where it can be used.

Protosmoke is too thick for some of my trains. They run too cool; poor smoke.

Lionels burns off a bit faster. Mid-rate IMO.

Mega Steam & Pat's produce well, but evaporate faster.

...I always liked they way pellets still smoked the next year or the year after

They all seem to work well. The only stuff that I have had a bad experience with are Lionel’s new scented fluids.   Just open one, look inside, and you’ll see sediment settled into the bottom of the bottle. You have to shake the bottle vigorously to mix the insoluble scent agent with the smoke fluid. Smoke units seem to get gummed up really fast using these fluids. My theory is that this residual sediment gets left behind as scorched gum when the smoke fluid evaporates. Love the smells they offer, but tearing apart smoke units for servicing all the time gets old really fast. 

Last edited by GregR
MartyE posted:

I use Lionel Premium in all my under warranty Legacy engines.

MTH, JT's, and Lionel Premium in all others and out of warranty Lionel depending on what I'm running.  

I have never understood how that works? All of my train friends I know “many on this forum” Use Megasteam in all brands of locomotives without any problems. 

How does Lionel know you have used another brand smoke fluid if you send in the engine for warranty work?  Do they do a chemical analysis of the wick to see if your using there brand?!  If so what happens? Sorry. But the locomotive you just shelled out $1,500 on we can’t fix beacause you didn’t use are fluid!   What’s my motivation for buying a new Lionel locomotive at any price? It just seems ridiculous to me. 

Chris Lonero posted:
MartyE posted:

I use Lionel Premium in all my under warranty Legacy engines.

MTH, JT's, and Lionel Premium in all others and out of warranty Lionel depending on what I'm running.  

I have never understood how that works? All of my train friends I know “many on this forum” Use Megasteam in all brands of locomotives without any problems. 

How does Lionel know you have used another brand smoke fluid if you send in the engine for warranty work?  Do they do a chemical analysis of the wick to see if your using there brand?!  If so what happens? Sorry. But the locomotive you just shelled out $1,500 on we can’t fix beacause you didn’t use are fluid!   What’s my motivation for buying a new Lionel locomotive at any price? It just seems ridiculous to me. 

They know. If a manufacturer won't guarantee a warranty repair because of smoke fluid brand I'll use what they recommend until the warranty is over.

Last edited by MartyE
GregR posted:
jim pastorius posted:

Try real finely ground dry tree leaves. Smokes and has a good odor !!

Good idea, but I’m still waiting on JT to make Marlboro scented fluid. Never mind those silly Christmas smells, I want something to remind me of a 1970’s train club. 

Ugh!  What a terrible memory.  Suppose most of the Marlboro men are toting oxygen tanks or draining urostomy bags if not pushing up daisies.

What, me worry?

I have tried them all, and the MTH smoke fluid produces the highest volume of dense smoke. However for several years, I have been making my own smoke fluid by cutting baby oil approximately 50% by volume using a commercial smoke fluid. Why baby oil? It is mineral oil, and a 14 fluid ounce bottle costs about $1.

I do not wrap the wick around the resistors in the smoke unit. Instead I use Tiki Torch wicking cut to fit into the fluid reservoir. I fill the reservoir with wicking to its top, so that it contacts the bottom of the resistors. Then, in lieu of 20 drops, I fill the reservoir with as much smoke fluid as it will hold. Typically about 1" of fluid in an eye dropper fills an MTH smoke unit reservoir I stuff with Tiki Torch wicking.

Here is the result. It's a Rail King NYO&W Mohawk accelerating out of town.

30-1166-1 NYO&W Y-2 Mountain [1)

 

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RoyBoy posted:

If you are new to the whole smoke fluid thing, you might try buying in small quantities first. Some of the fluids that are supposed to be allergy-free really annoy my allergies.

If you buy a huge bottle and do not like it, you will waste your money.

Roy,

You have a good point.  I do not run with smoke because it can make my wife's asthma kick in.  While at Patrick's Trains in Wheeling this summer he gave me a bottle of his own brand that his chemist daughter concocted.  It gives off a smoke that he said won't set off fire detectors or aggravate asthma or allergies.  I tried it and so far so good.  He calls it P&P's Train Smoke, P-orange2.  Yes it has a bit of an orange scent. Since I don't run smoke, I can't compare the volume of smoke.  If you can't use anything else, you may want to try it. www.patstrains.comIMG_2072IMG_2073

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When I got the VL BB, I ordered like 4 bottles of Lionel's Premium and that was the only thing ever run it in.  When I had to send it back for repairs, they tried to say I had been using some other brand.  So no, they can't tell what fluid has been run.  So after that, and the fact that no one in the house liked the smell of the Lionel Premium (Myself included.), I bought JT's Apple pie smoke from my LHS and mix the two 50-50.  Now I get the same smoke output, but a better smell.

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