anyone has used trains america studios turbo smoke unit?

Interesting.

Can you post a pic or two?

Rod

Is there a hole at the top for air, or is that the fan air intake?  I've never used one, so I don't know first-hand.

Since it has a fan intake hole on top, I can't imagine what that hole is for.  I'd JB-Weld that sucker closed.

Does the hole go all the way through into the fan chamber or just into the dead air space between the fan chamber and the outer wall? And does it look like it came from the factory that way, or like somebody drilled it with an ordinary drill? If it doesn't actually impinge on the fan chamber, I'd leave it alone. 

Another thought just occurred to me. Is the hole threaded? It's just possible that the previous owner did a custom installation on an engine that didn't originally have smoke, and had to drill an extra hole for a homemade bracket. If the hole is threaded and doesn't impinge on the fan chamber, that would be my guess for why it's there. 

did fill it in made smoke come out less..took the jb weld backout of the hole...im not very impressed with this smoke unit...if this subpose to be a turbo smoke unit..my mod MTH kicks its butt..for smoke out put..

Anyone know who fixes these Train America smoke units? Burnt out the resistor and the hemistat? I think that is what it is called is burnt as well. Would like to get it repaired. Soimeone mentioned that Weaver Models in Pa. does repair work in the old Ta stuff.

ill call them in the morning to see if they still do repair them ..

The thermistor was there to prevent the unit from overheating I've been told. 

I don't think it's a hemostat.

Hi, I hope that you don't mind me butting in here, but after looking at your pictures a couple of things spring to mind.

I'm not 100% certain that these apply to this type of smoke unit, but I'm sure that somebody will soon correct me if I'm wrong.

The smoke element appears to have a rather frazzled sleeving. This might well be reducing smoke generation, and carefully removing this might improve things.

I note too that there is no sign of any gasket between the PCB and the metal housing. Without some sort of gasket, you could be getting air leaks which will reduce the effectiveness of the fan.

I can't see any signs of the resistor on the top surface that you mention. I can see a capacitor, but that is probably needed.

And finally. What kind of power supply are you using?  Some smoke units work a lot better with a chopped wave form supply than with a smooth sine wave supply.

its a cermamic heating unit instead of a wire wraped around the ballist reister.im going to swap mine out with a maybe lionels or put a mth dubble heaters in it.

Gunrunner,

I knew it was something along that line-Thermistor! Does anyone know who would repair these units since TA is no longer around?

I don't personally know anyone that repairs them, I'd probably do it myself.  I've repaired several TAS boards, blown traces, bad drivers, etc.  I've never had the TAS smoke unit in-hand to see how it functions.