A topic which at times seems to attract more than its fair share of interest is just how well locomotives smoke, especially steam engines. It seems those who enjoy smoking locos, (albeit a sizeable number of folks don't for a myriad of reasons), frequently seek ways to make their engines smoke even more profusely whether by such a simple fix as trying a different smoke fluid to minor mods of changing the heating resistor, the amount of wicking, or enlarging the air intake hole to more severe mods involving replacing the engine's smoke unit with that of another manufacturer. But can the volume of smoke coming from an engine ever be so much smoke as to be anti-prototypical?
Case in point being a video I recently viewed showing an o gauge engine with a continuous plume of smoke that many comments showed admiration and even envy of. But was it so much smoke that it was actually unrealistic?
There is was pouring forth from the smokestack when the engine was idling and when that engine finally started, there was just a continuation of the same. Though you'd hear the engine chuffs, the smoking wasn't in sync with it. No puffing seen whatsoevr, rather just that continuous even flow of smoke coming from the smokestack. I'm wondering is that prototypical of any steam engines?
When a steam locomotive is moving at a good clip, I imagine it does have a steady smoke plume visibly void of noticeable puffing, but going from standing still building to a cruising speed don't all steamers display puffing from their smokestacks?
Just asking if there were any steam engines whose smoke was constant without puffing?
What do you think? Can the engines on your layout ever smoke too much as o lose it's realism?
