Considering swearing off smoke. Any others out there?

Are paint issues common with diesel smokers?

I am trying to decide between the MTH Imperial SD 70 with Bell and Horn only  or the Williams SD 90 in the MoPac Heritage paint.  Other than being the correct engine one of the features the MTH has that the Williams does not is smoke.  I don't want to damage that beautiful paintjob.  If I can't use the smoke then flashing ditch lights are all the MTH has over the Williams other than being the correct locomotive.

  

I usually don't run smoke because sometimes it just gets to be too much haze in the room. However I just picked up a bottle of JTs Megasteam and:

 

 

 

Jerry

Interesting, I can't think of a single locomotive I have here that doesn't have a smoke switch, the only exception being the old 2026 and the 2055.

Lionel 2020 (smoke bulb) and 8703, and Marx 666 and 1666. The '70's 8703 is the newest thing in the fleet!  LOL

I rarely turn on the smoke when I run the trains, other than whistle steam. I do, however, check out the smoke unit when I receive a new locomotive, both steam and diesel, to make sure they work properly.

Always on for steamers, but I've never even turned it on for my diesels or for caboose that have a smoke feature.

Yeah, there's no good reason for diesel models to smoke much except as an occasional gag. I remember seeing TV footage of the former EMD employees' model railroad (many years ago) and they had a smoking GE U-boat. Some of the guys had smirks on their faces like they had slyly staged it for the camera.

I run the diesels on low smoke for Legacy or PS/2, TMCC you get what you get.

I wish there was an option to have locos smoke for the first 30 seconds or so, then gradually taper off to nothing. It is impressive when starting out with a steam loco especially, I personally think that is long enough. Others may differ, and that is their choice.