? About Camelback smoke unit.

You might need one of these...

http://henningstrains.lightspe...huffer-jwanda/dp/251

The LC+ units turn off the smoke unit when stopped.  I wondered about that myself, so I popped the shell and measured the voltage, when you stop it drops to zero.  It takes about 30 seconds or so for good smoke to get going once you start moving.

Oh good, thank you for clarifying. I see some other models of steam engines (Legacy ones) just sitting idle drifting smoke and was thinking I had an issue.

I feel much better now. Thanks again.

I get to see many LC+ with smoke output complaints.  These engines use the fiberglass pad in the smoke unit.  If you put just a bit of extra smoke fluid in, the saturated wick now cools the heater enough that you have a hard (or none) time getting it to smoke.  I replace the fiberglass pad with the 8 inch wick.  Lionel part number 691-SMKP-008.   Reagonize it first (shread) and you will get more smoke that you ever thought you would get.

Although I do not own any LC+, I am a big fan.  

I am not a fan of the fiberglass pad and pull it out of every Lionel engine I have and do the above replacement.  

It also takes a bit of time for the smoke to start with the LC+ engine, they actually turn off the smoke element when you stop.  That's good in that it doesn't cook the element, but bad in that it takes a bit of time for it to start with good smoke.