New Video - Lionel Locomotive Smoke Units 101

Wow 30 minutes, I guess I will have to wait for home.

BTW Mike Thanks for these vids, they are really helpful

WOW Mike that was a great, thank you for taking the time to
do this video. Really good information.Very very helpful

THANKS AGAIN ALEX

Very informative. I better understand, so hopefully will be better at using the smoke unit. Wonder if this will affect using the smoke fluid loader? Should I not plan on using this with my engines? John

I certainly hope that the management team at Lionel knows just how important Mike is to driving future sales of the product. With Mike there, the buyers are redeveloping a confidence in the product line that was lost over many years. We now know that not only is there an outlet for fixing current production Lionel, but fixes for earlier design inadequacies are happening as well. This makes for fewer potential shelf-queens and more product holding onto value.

Videos that still need to be made:

1. Sealing the leaky smoke units in the Baby Mikado.

2. Fixing the air-flow issue in the vertical bowl/batting-free mechanical units. (1/4" hole through the baffle at the element center-remove the sleeve)

3. Adding "chuff" to TMCC-1 smoke units that blow continuously. I mean, there's a signal being sent to the sound unit to chuff... why not the fan?

Jon

Mike,
Thanks for producing these. This was a great education on smoke units.
The whole series is very helpful.
Please keep them coming.
Mike

Great video! Thanks Mike!

Gunny

That was a very informative video. Nice job. Does anyone have a web address of a retailer that sells the bottle he used to put the smoke fluid into the engine?

I`ve watched all of these Videos and have the LEGACY DVD and they have helped Me very much. Mike Reagan had a post on the Forum here that you can get these Needle Point Plastic Bottles at 'USP' [UNITED STATES PLASTIC CORPORATION]Online.

All sorts of plastic stuff including needle applicators at www.craftics.net

Gunny

Hi all I use this bottle with the needle point and
it works well.I noticed you have to be careful not to let
the neddle hit the stack because it makes a spark.This happens
if the smoke unit is on or off.SO what I did was put black electric
tape around the needle so I would not get that spark.This did'nt happen
with all of my Lionel engines just a few of them.

Mike Reagan if you read this I just want to make sure I'm not
doing something wrong.

THANKS AGAIN TO MIKE REAGAN FOR DOING THESE GREAT INFO VIDEO'S

ALEX

Alex,
Use a plastic needle! If you are getting sparks unit is shorting out Watch the video again.

Gunny

Thank you Gunny I couldn't see in the video if it
was metal or plastic .I should of put my glasses on
when I watched it.


THANKS AGAIN ALEX

Great video!!! Really helpful.

Just curious, if these needle applicators are the way to go, why not include them with the locomotives? or with the premium smoke fluid?

just a suggestion. Keep up with the great vids!

Megasteam makes some needle applicators and while they work great with Megasteam, the Lionel fluid seems to be too think to squeeze through it.

Chris,I use the jt's needle applicator with the new Lionel premium smoke fluid,it is a lot thinner than the old fluid and squarts out in a stream,if I try it with the fluid that comes with the RTR sets it is very hard to get because that stuff is super thick...

I had a near empty bottle of Labelle oil with the same (or very similar) needle point applicator tip as the one that Megasteam offers.
It's a straight point and has no bend. Using the new perm. fluid, you get a stream but you have to apply quite a bit of pressure to the bottle. Seems perfect as it doesn't just flood out all at once.

Thank You Mike, that was very informative. I thought I knew about smoke units, but your video taught me alot. I really like your needel applicator idea. I'm one of those guys who are always wiping fluid off of his engines.

That coating you spoke of "Monistic" (I'm not to sure of my spelling)is that something we should be concerned with on all smoke units?

When I'm done playing, I shut down my smoke units and then later I re-load the fluid after they've had a chance to cool. By the next session, the fluid has completely absorbed into the batting.

Jon

Hi Everyone,

I watched this very informative video and was inspired to contact Mike Reagan and ask how/whether my 746 "Warhorse" J smoke production could be improved. I suspect that because it is TMC equipped, it requires 18v to puff well. I operate only in conventional mode; hence, for the most part the loco does not see max voltage for long periods of time.

Mike's response was that the loco could not be upgraded. I am wondering whether there is an aftermarket smoke unit that would fit and work well in the loco, and who might supply/install such a product.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

X2000

quote:

Originally posted by jrmertz:
Great video!!! Really helpful.

Just curious, if these needle applicators are the way to go, why not include them with the locomotives? or with the premium smoke fluid?

just a suggestion. Keep up with the great vids!

The Lionel Milwaukee Road S-3 comes with a little funnel with a long skinny tube that puts the smoke fluid deep into the reservoir and still lets you count drops. It works great; Lionel should include it with future engines and sell it as a separate accessory item.

quote:

Originally posted by X2000:
Hi Everyone,

I watched this very informative video and was inspired to contact Mike Reagan and ask how/whether my 746 "Warhorse" J smoke production could be improved. I suspect that because it is TMC equipped, it requires 18v to puff well. I operate only in conventional mode; hence, for the most part the loco does not see max voltage for long periods of time.

Mike's response was that the loco could not be upgraded. I am wondering whether there is an aftermarket smoke unit that would fit and work well in the loco, and who might supply/install such a product.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

X2000

Weaver installs Train America Studios smoke units, which smoke pretty well as is and can be improved using the method Mike shows in his previous video on improving Lionel smoke units. Check out Weaver's web page.

"MENISCUS" or "HYDROLOCK" is how it`s spelled, I believe.

quote:

Originally posted by X2000:
Hi Everyone,

I watched this very informative video and was inspired to contact Mike Reagan and ask how/whether my 746 "Warhorse" J smoke production could be improved. I suspect that because it is TMC equipped, it requires 18v to puff well. I operate only in conventional mode; hence, for the most part the loco does not see max voltage for long periods of time.

Mike's response was that the loco could not be upgraded. I am wondering whether there is an aftermarket smoke unit that would fit and work well in the loco, and who might supply/install such a product.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

X2000

A friend of mine was also disappointed in his Warhorse smoke production as he too runs conventional only. I suggested he try some Megasteam fluid & that seemed to help some although still not great. I think the real fix would be to replace the heating resistor with one that got hotter with less voltage (less ohm resistance?), if a suitable replacement could be found. The stock mechanical smoke units are glued together but it's not too difficult to separate the top from the reservoir to access the heating unit.

It just occured to me that the older model 8100 smoke unit might have the heating element needed as it was a conventional loco. Might even be a direct replacement although I haven't tried this. This unit is probably still available through some of the parts vendors, about $15 I think. Any thoughts?

quote:

Originally posted by jimrobbb3:
Chris,I use the jt's needle applicator with the new Lionel premium smoke fluid,it is a lot thinner than the old fluid and squarts out in a stream,if I try it with the fluid that comes with the RTR sets it is very hard to get because that stuff is super thick...

I was using the older stuff, my dealer keeps running out of the new stuff before I can get it. Will give it a try when I get some.