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Lionel smoke units, better than 10 years ago???

Jeff TJeff TOGR Forum Member
The last motorized units I bought were in 2002, the BNSF Dash 8 and the New Haven H16. Now ten years ago these fan driven units were pretty good but have current offering surpassed them?

I found the YouTube video by Lionel and modded both units so they are a tad better. I've also searched and found that Mega-Steam is really the preferred smoke fluid so I'll be grabbing a bottle or two tomorrow!

So back to the original question. Will any of the new stuff "smoke" me out of the house?

And steam or diesel, I'm open to either!

Thanks!!
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LW Lee WillisOGR Forum Member
In both recent steamers and diesels the smoke units work much better than in older units I have.

However, those older units are older, and in my case all were bought used within the last five years, so I don't know if maybe all of them have weakened and deteriorated and they worked as well as recent models when new.

I do know that very recent models (this year's) are all impressive, just a bit better than in the past it seems to me.
J DaddyJ DaddyOGR Forum Member
I've been re-building / repairing lots of smoke units in the past 5 years.
The ARE the achilles heal of most engines. In repairing Lionel smoke units I have notice the following
The puffing smoke units produced in 2002 steam engines and earlier were poor smokers compared to today
The fan driven smoke units are better but the resisters were not consistent in ratings, the nylon sleeves charred and burned out, the smoke regulator boards were separate and prone to issues. Also alot of the steam engine features/smoke features were not consitant, some chuffed, some constant all the time, etc.

For diesels; I always replace the wadding, cut the nylon sleeve off and suggest a needle applicator to fill the smoke unit.
Jeff TJeff TOGR Forum Member
quote:
Originally posted by J Daddy:
I've been re-building / repairing lots of smoke units in the past 5 years.
The ARE the achilles heal of most engines. In repairing Lionel smoke units I have notice the following
The puffing smoke units produced in 2002 steam engines and earlier were poor smokers compared to today
The fan driven smoke units are better but the resisters were not consistent in ratings, the nylon sleeves charred and burned out, the smoke regulator boards were separate and prone to issues. Also alot of the steam engine features/smoke features were not consitant, some chuffed, some constant all the time, etc.

For diesels; I always replace the wadding, cut the nylon sleeve off and suggest a needle applicator to fill the smoke unit.


I pulled off the nylon sleeves, replaced the wadding material with material from a tiki wick and opened up the hole in the regulator board to 1/4".

How hot should the resistor get? Mine seemed to top out at about 150F.
SH Southwest HiawathaOGR Forum Member
The first Lionel locomotive I ever bought that had a decent smoke unit was the Hiawatha 4-4-2 (2006). Everything before that was really anemic. Current ones smoke quite well. If you want to improve the smoke output of your older Lionel units, Mike Reagan of Lionel has posted a video on both the Lionel website and YouTube of how to rebuild the older ones to smoke more. I've tried it and it works.
J DaddyJ DaddyOGR Forum Member
Interesting I have never measured the heat produced. I measure the Ohm resistance. There was a chart posted earlier that noted measured resistance in a TMCC version resistor. I want to going on memory the earlier smoke units that the measure measurements vary from 17 ohms to 27 ohms, other units have 8 to ? ohms.
The resistance changes when the Aux1 nine button is held down, thus producing more smoke, then would revert back to the higher resistance producing less smoke.

I want to say on the hot setting in my 779 NKP steam engine, last one I measured, it measured 8 ohms on the max setting.
c.samc.samOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
We have a WP Mountain from the 2000 catalog which needed a new smoke unit. I obtained one that has been modified and it smokes very well hitting the boost and running at 19v-20v but not at all at less than 18v.
We just this week obtained an Erie Berkshire from 2003 and it smokes very well at only 15v-16v with no assist from the boost.
Our two other Lionel steamers from 2000 also require running at 19v or above for any visible smoke. Also requires hitting the boost from time to time.
RickORickOOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER
The newest Legacy smoke units are vastly improved, even over the first legacy units which are way better than anything from before say 2005. IMO the Lionel legacy smoke units are easily on a par with the well touted MTH units if not better. The first obvious sign of this, I saw when shining a flashlight down the stack of the new k4, the physical size of the resistors Lionel is now using looks to be nearly twice the diameter of anything previous.
gunrunnerjohngunrunnerjohnOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
quote:
Originally posted by J Daddy:

The resistance changes when the Aux1 nine button is held down, thus producing more smoke, then would revert back to the higher resistance producing less smoke.
Uhh... no! Resistance doesn't change for boost, you just hit the element with a higher voltage, thus making it hotter. Changing the resistance would be a neat trick for a fixed wire-wound resistor! Wink
J DaddyJ DaddyOGR Forum Member
quote:
Originally posted by gunrunnerjohn:
quote:
Originally posted by J Daddy:

The resistance changes when the Aux1 nine button is held down, thus producing more smoke, then would revert back to the higher resistance producing less smoke.
Uhh... no! Resistance doesn't change for boost, you just hit the element with a higher voltage, thus making it hotter. Changing the resistance would be a neat trick for a fixed wire-wound resistor! Wink


Doh! your right, I meant to say the voltage changes as read on the Digital Multi-Meter. That would be a neat trick !
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