are you having trouble with the cylinder steam on your new visionline gs locomotives?

I traded my buddy for a Milwaukee northern. He claims the cylinder steam effect worked fine. However I have been unsuccessful in getting it to work. Personally I would never open up an engine again. I tried that once and it was a disaster to get all the wiring safely back in. A man has to know his limitations. I considered dumping more fluid in to see if that helps it along. However the cab light has been flickering so I suspect it’s some other problem.

I was leary about opening up a new 1800 dollar engine also steve. after seeing what bruk did I just had too. this engine is easy to take apart and work on. the wire managment is not bad and makes it easy to get the shell back on. alwasy wanted the s3 but never got it though.

Just a thought here. If lionel could have changed the tooling a bit so the top part of the boiler over the smoke unit was magnetic and removable then getting the fluid into the smoke unit would have been easier. Remove magnetic smoke stack plate. Then move the plastic smoke funnel out of the way and drop in the fluid directly into the smoke unit chambers and down into the batting. Replace plastic funnel and magnetic stack piece and done. Oh well hindsight is always 20/20.

I don’t have a horse in this race but I’m wondering if the issue is the size of the tubing/opening and the capillary effect.  I have a few locos than any time I add fluid to the smoke doesn’t work right away.  I usually have to blow down the stack a few times to clear a path for the smoke.