Anemic Smoke Unit

According to the Lionel parts breakdown, you have a mechanical puffer unit in that engine (part # 76 on the list I believe).

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...ON=productPartFilter

That's one that cries for a fan driven smoke upgrade.

Thanks guys for the replies. Questions for gunrunnerjohn. What kind of fan driven smoke unit would I need, where can I get one, and how difficult are they to install?

Vic,

How about getting a super chuffer smoke unit from GRJ.

Erol

A Lionel 8057-200 smoke unit modified with an 18 or 20 ohm heater and enlarged air intake will make great smoke. I see no reason why that smoke unit would not fit in that boiler. You will also need a Super Chuffer board to pulse the fan and make puffing smoke.

i have not worked on that particular engine but you may be able to modify the smoke cam lever (since the plunger puffer will be gone) and retain the cherry switch actuator so as to produce the necessary pulses for chuff and puff. If not, you will also need a Chuff Generator board to replace the cherrry switch function. Not to be negative but K-Line scale Hudsons and Mikados used the same style cam lever actuator, and its basically impossible to retain the original cherry switch operation. The CG also allows selection of correct 4 chuffs per rev instead of only 2 chuffs.

On the plus side, once modified you will have a great smoking and puffing engine with rule 17 lighting, and cab lighting that extinguishes when the engine is in motion. It would be a great mod! 

Rod

Erol,

I think the super chuffer would only be good if I had a fan driven smoke unit in the loco. This engine is a 2001 vintage TMCC loco and came with a mechanical smoke unit,

Correct, first requirement for the Super-Chuffer II is indeed having a fan driven smoke unit.  As to how difficult they are to install, that's a somewhat loaded question.  How comfortable are you taking apart the locomotive, doing some basic rewiring, and the mechanical aspect of mounting a different smoke unit.

Actually mounting the smoke unit in a steamer boiler is one of the easier tasks IMO. It generally fits up against the smoke nipple on the boiler stack nicely, and clears the inside of the shell with 1 or 2 mm each side. I use thin wood wedges to gently jam/lodge it in place; no muss, no fuss. I find cedar shake shingles work nicely, it only takes a couple of very small pieces, about 1 inch square. See the yellow arrows below. Never had one come loose yet.

This particular example is an MTH PS-2 smoke unit in a converted K-Line scale Hudson, but Lionels 8057-200 is dimensionally similar, and I have mounted several of them this same way.

Rod

Vic,

I know that the super chuffer is a fan driven smoke unit. if you are going to improve the smoke output, putting in a fan driven smoke unit will give you far more smoke than a puffer type. If you really like the loco and run it a lot, it might be worth it to upgrade it to a fan driven unit, whether you do it yourself or have someone else like GRJ do it. 

Erol