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Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:

If you really need smoke in the caboose, I've replaced several of them with the MTH HO fan driven smoke unit.  It doesn't get nearly as hot in operation, and you can tune it to the amount of smoke you like.  It'll give you lots more smoke than the stock one, and it won't melt the sides of the caboose.

 

Perhaps you could make a tutorial of the process with part numbers and such so some of us can do the same on ours, please?

Jeff B

 

    I had a K Line PRR Cabin Car whose roof melted while I was running in command control at our club layout (using Legacy).

 

    I also had one K Line Cabin Car whose windows fell out, took it apart which was a task in itself.

 

    My advice is to leave it alone and turn off the smoke unit forever.

 

JohnB

I have one of these Cabooses, I keep it turned off. Someday I will get around to modifying it so the roof does not melt (anymore).

This topic has been discussed off and on for over ten years here on the forum. Some have suggested increasing the value of the resister in the smoke unit or adding a resister between the pickup rollers and the smoke unit. The latter seems to be the preferred method.

I recently had to add a 25 ohm resister in series with the interior lighting in my K-Line heavy weight pass cars to run them on an 18V track.

I like the idea you have suggested. Is there a way you can tell/illustrate how you did this? Do you need special electrical items, since HO is DC??
 
Thanks,
 
Jeff
 
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:

If you really need smoke in the caboose, I've replaced several of them with the MTH HO fan driven smoke unit.  It doesn't get nearly as hot in operation, and you can tune it to the amount of smoke you like.  It'll give you lots more smoke than the stock one, and it won't melt the sides of the caboose.

 

 

GREAT advise!  Didn't realize the problems. I guyess I was lucky that none of mine, thus far, melted roofs, etc.
 
I will beware. And turn them off if I run TMCC, but I usually run my TMCC at 17 volts.
 
Originally Posted by Richard Gonzales:

Jeff,

 

If I were you I would not worry about replacing the smoke unit. Many K Line cabooses have been ruined by the smoke unit causing the caboose to melt. K Line made many great looking cabooses, and I do not think Lionel has brought back these models.

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

 

I wonder if that is why several of my Milwaukee Road heavyweights are shorting out??
 
Originally Posted by Doug C:

I have one of these Cabooses, I keep it turned off. Someday I will get around to modifying it so the roof does not melt (anymore).

This topic has been discussed off and on for over ten years here on the forum. Some have suggested increasing the value of the resister in the smoke unit or adding a resister between the pickup rollers and the smoke unit. The latter seems to be the preferred method.

I recently had to add a 25 ohm resister in series with the interior lighting in my K-Line heavy weight pass cars to run them on an 18V track.

 

Originally Posted by Jeff B. Haertlein:
I like the idea you have suggested. Is there a way you can tell/illustrate how you did this? Do you need special electrical items, since HO is DC??
 
Thanks,
 
Jeff

The "Cliff Notes" version...

 

The MTH HO smoke unit, AA-1600000 is used for the conversion.  I mount the smoke unit on a small piece of fiberglass and secure it to the base of the caboose.  I extend the stack with a brass tube to the existing stack.  A small adjustable AC to DC switching power supply from eBay provides the power.  For the fan motor, I included four series diodes to drop the voltage to the fan motor, it likes to run around 2-3 volts.  I've found the smoke unit works well in the 4-5 volt range from the power supply, hence the diodes to reduce the voltage to the fan motor.

 

It's important to mount the smoke unit directly under the existing stack so you can easily add fluid.

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