Upgrading Smoke Units on Lionel Berks

I would start by replacing the wicking and drilling the air inlet out with a 1/8 drill bit,then add JT's and see what you get.

Here's Lionel's Mike Reagan showing how to do it.

is that a pre=legacy unit if so look at this.

http://www.martye.com/TipsandTricks/TipsandTrick5.htm

After Mike Regan put the batting back in,did he put in a new wick.It didnt look like he put a wick back ,any advice or help thanks

quote:

Originally posted by MR-150:
After Mike Regan put the batting back in,did he put in a new wick.It didnt look like he put a wick back ,any advice or help thanks

Batting is the wick,or wicking. Batting/wicking becomes charred and hard over time as its used and does not draw the smoke fluid up to the resistor resulting in poor smoke, which is why it periodically needs to be replaced.

That wick or sock as I call it is the problem as it never touched far enough down in the smoke chanmber to wick up the 5 drops you put in so it just burned up. I did this on my scale 0=6=0 as it was a terrible smoker and the resistor was only 27 ohms so it did not get very hot.
I put in pink insulation deep enough so the resistor pushed on the wick, soaked it with jts before putting it back together and it smokes well. Now 4-5 drops is all you need to refresh it.

quote:

Originally posted by ironlake2:
That wick or sock as I call it is the problem as it never touched far enough down in the smoke chanmber to wick up the 5 drops you put in so it just burned up. I did this on my scale 0=6=0 as it was a terrible smoker and the resistor was only 27 ohms so it did not get very hot.
I put in pink insulation deep enough so the resistor pushed on the wick, soaked it with jts before putting it back together and it smokes well. Now 4-5 drops is all you need to refresh it.

I would avoid pink insulation, while it does work, I've tried it and it burnt onto the resistor and was nearly impossible to get off. Use either the "lionel wicking" that can be ordered from their website, or the inside of tiki torch wick that can be purchased at a local hardware store, many members have had good luck with this. 4-5 drops of fluid is not adequeate for anything outside of a conventionsl semi scale starter loco. For scale units I would recommend at least 10-15 drops,or you'll be replacing the wicking again soon.

I did my NYC niagara smoke unit today.. It was a improvement .. It wasnt to fun to take apart though.

Interesting, something I have wondered about myself.

One question, what is the Lionel batting made of? I ask as I have some wick for my meths/alcohol live steam locos, which is a durable fiberglass material.

Back in the day, the wicks for live steamers used to be Chrysotile (asbestos!)

Took apart my BNSF Dash 8 today and did the Reagan mod. Little ticked as I had it serviced by an authorized dealer and all they did was flip over the wicking material.

Smoke better but could still use more smoke. Can the resistor be changed/improved?

I did this to my New York Central L-2a Mohawk and it made a nice improvement. I used the batting that was mentioned by Mike in the Lionel video. The mod itself was fairly easy to do. Worst part was was getting the smoke unit to line up with the smoke stack during reassembly.

Here are before and after videos if you are curious.

Before:




After:

Joe R... Just want to let you know after watching that first video a few years back on youtube i went out a bought a L2 and i have to say it one of the best runners i have.. I have 300 hours on mine or more..

jojofry,

Thanks. It's nice to hear that. I often turn to YouTube for videos of locomotives I'm interested in buying. I like to see how they run and hear how they sound before I make a decision.

I also like my L2. I bought this used at York in April 2009, so I have no idea how many hours are on it. It does run well and knock on wood no problems during the 3 years I have owned it.

Joe