I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
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rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
No, nobody makes/offers any sort of smoke fluid that emits "black". Also, please remember that what you are seeing coming out of the exhaust stacks is NOT actually "smoke", but white oil vapor. Trying to produce "black smoke" would pretty well plug up the wicks in the smoke units anyway.
All N&W locomotives had a sign on them "Black Smoke is Waste".
Black smoke from a diesel engine indicates a problem. Typically an intake restriction. I see diesel hybrids in Newark Penn Station all the time and you can barely see any smoke. I also have a diesel pickup that I would consider busted if it started belching out black smoke.
Personally, I like the smoke on steam engines but not on diesels.
Tony
Basically anything you could do to make the engine put out "black smoke" would likely a)wreck the smoke unit and b)more than likely might be toxic. Not to mention that outside some of the crazy fan driven units that can almost make it impossible to see in a train room, most smoke units produce less than prototypical smoke anyway, and that (to me) is a good thing
It would probably be toxic, ruin the smoke unit, stink, and make your house filthy.
Dirty turbos will give a black smoke show like you wouldn't believe. We were working on a job pulling a heavy freight up an incline with a gp20 that had a dirty turbo charger.. It was working so hard and belching out so much black smoke, it looked like night time in the middle of the day. It's quite a sight when the turbo catches fire too. Hopefully nobody will want that effect on purpose with their model trains! I know some have had that happened unintentionally. 😀
The "black" part of smoke is particulate matter. Particulate matter even if it is not carcinogenic, can carry carcinogens in the air into your lungs. Toy Train smoke is not smoke, but suspended droplets. You don't want smoke.
Jon 
scott.smith posted:All N&W locomotives had a sign on them "Black Smoke is Waste".
The former webmaster has stated that black smoke is wasted fuel and a poor job done by the fireman.
White smoke comes out of my trains cause my 1:48 fireman know what they're doing.
( Haven't we discussed this black smoke thing recently already?)
Heres video of 765 going around horseshoe curve working as hard as ever in the last 74 years, no black smoke to be seen.
Just sand your flues!
Jay
This occurred during the Joliet Rocket excursion this past September...not sure what caused it...but it was quite a sight as we almost came to a stop not long after departing Joliet! Thought maybe 765 was having a little touch of indigestion...😳
Hot Water posted:rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
No, nobody makes/offers any sort of smoke fluid that emits "black". Also, please remember that what you are seeing coming out of the exhaust stacks is NOT actually "smoke", but white oil vapor. Trying to produce "black smoke" would pretty well plug up the wicks in the smoke units anyway.
Hotwater, couldn’t a fireman **** near lose his job for too much waste makin black smoke?....I thought I read something to that effect in a NYC book........Pat
Jay C posted:Just sand your flues!
Jay
On a coal burning steam locomotive?
harmonyards posted:Hot Water posted:rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
No, nobody makes/offers any sort of smoke fluid that emits "black". Also, please remember that what you are seeing coming out of the exhaust stacks is NOT actually "smoke", but white oil vapor. Trying to produce "black smoke" would pretty well plug up the wicks in the smoke units anyway.
Hotwater, couldn’t a fireman **** near lose his job for too much waste makin black smoke?....I thought I read something to that effect in a NYC book........Pat
Sort of true. Receiving too many demerits too often could, and did, cost you your job.
harmonyards posted:Hot Water posted:rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
No, nobody makes/offers any sort of smoke fluid that emits "black". Also, please remember that what you are seeing coming out of the exhaust stacks is NOT actually "smoke", but white oil vapor. Trying to produce "black smoke" would pretty well plug up the wicks in the smoke units anyway.
Hotwater, couldn’t a fireman **** near lose his job for too much waste makin black smoke?....I thought I read something to that effect in a NYC book........Pat
Also was mentioned in the Pennsy book "Set Up Running". Seems the fireman had it in for some local merchant, so he put a tire in the firebox of the B6(?) The engineer lost his mind, and got really ****ed off... 
Mark in Oregon
Hot Water posted:Jay C posted:Just sand your flues!
Jay
On a coal burning steam locomotive?
Who said it was a coal burner? Once again, you make too many assumptions.
SteveC posted:I seem to remember logs that could make green smoke then red smoke in order to get to 88 mph but I don't remember black smoke.
Note to self: Recreate this in 1:48 scale.
Mitch
Jay C posted:Hot Water posted:Jay C posted:Just sand your flues!
Jay
On a coal burning steam locomotive?
Who said it was a coal burner? Once again, you make too many assumptions.
Not an "assumption", as RICKO posted a video and comments about NKP 765, to which you responded to.
rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
Would it leave soot all over the house then?
Black smoke can only be created using particulate matter. When that settles out, it would indeed be all over the house (or layout). This keeps coming up, and the answer is always the same, there's no practical way to make reasonably clean black smoke!
I wish there were a way to hammer this home.
Black smoke, no problem, just hit it with 220 or 221v, whatever it takes.
Chris S.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Black smoke can only be created using particulate matter. When that settles out, it would indeed be all over the house (or layout). This keeps coming up, and the answer is always the same, there's no practical way to make reasonably clean black smoke!
I wish there were a way to hammer this home.
We all are....
One other way to get black smoke, think way too hard. Either black smoke will appear, or one will find themselves out cold hours after thinking. 
BobbyD posted:rugsy3 posted:I was watching a video and I noticed that when the engines are putting a lot of effort they put out black smoke. I was wondering if there is a place that makes black train smoke because I like my trains to look very real.
Brian
Loose Ties Model Railroad Club
Would it leave soot all over the house then?
That was my first thought: every wife who saw this new "feature" would immediately kick you all out!
Mark in Oregon 
PDDMI posted:This occurred during the Joliet Rocket excursion this past September...not sure what caused it...but it was quite a sight as we almost came to a stop not long after departing Joliet! Thought maybe 765 was having a little touch of indigestion...😳
Nice video Paul, I’ve never seen that much black smoke before! When I saw 765 in the Cuyahoga Valley, this was the most black smoke I saw, all the other runbys was clear or white.
Black smoke via some pixel dust and MS Paint. Smoke courtesy of SP 2472:
Rusty
How'd they get this HO ALCO to smoke like that?
EBT Jim posted:How'd they get this HO ALCO to smoke like that?
Video editing software
I've asked this question before with mixed responses.
I've always seen black out of the stack and thought it would be more prototypical than white.
Wood creates white smoke,coal bkack. And yes steam is white, but coal burners create black flumes,unless on really cold mornings
Black smoke is stuff that wasn't burned ... coal particles and other crud that doesn't combust.
On the run-by photo ops I have attended, the firemen blow, or sand, the tubes to produce volumes of that photogenic black smoke.
An article I read that asserted the term "filthy dirty" was invented to describe steam power. From working on steam tractors I can confirm that that is true. A blend of steam oil and coal soot will leave an indelible mark on your clothes. I'll be glad to scrape out the smokebox of a steam tractor and send anyone who wants the stuff that didn't make it up the stack a sample so they can mix with their smoke fluid and experiment. It will give your layout a very prototypical look of grunge.
Some times I can get smoke pretty thick.It will give an sort of darker color.But to get black smoke you have to burn some thing.It would cause a lot of problems.And make a mess.
You could use graphite powder or black chalk fed through a motorized bellows small enough to fit with all the electronics in the shell of the loco.
You would have to store a lot of the fine black powder inside the empty fuel tank of a diesel locomotive model.
Andrew
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