on saturday i ran my one steam engine northern s3 for about an hour. my son was here visiting from nyc so i showed him my train layout on the second floor of the house. i usually only run the train for 10-15 minute sessions. after an hour we could barley see each other because of the smoke from the engine. today a day later the smoke is just about as thick.
big question---could smoke be made using heated distilled water? i think its better to breathe water vapor than oil vapor!
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I think our smoke fluid is pretty much mineral oil.Mineral is non toxic and is often ingested for constipation.
That explains the trips to the toilet after a running session.
Mineral is non toxic and is often ingested for constipation.
My suggestion would be to install a thru the wall bathroom exhaust fan. They are not expensive and have a fairly high cfm rate.
George Lasley
On many locomotives you can easily adjust the smoke volume or just turn it off altogether.
I seriously doubt that you're going to see manufacturers researching and introducing alternative types of smoke fluid...certainly not at this point in the hobby's evolution. Besides, the smoke fluids currently used have never been shown to be harmful, except in the minds of some who believe that anything you can see in the air must be harmful to you. And to those folks I would simply recommend using the "smoke off" switch on the engine and/or installing proper ventilation in the train room (a good idea even if you never use the smoke feature).
As for using water vapor in some form to produce smoke: Not a good idea to mix water, toy trains, and electricity.
"I think our smoke fluid is pretty much mineral oil.Mineral is non toxic and is often ingested for constipation."
While you can also ingest large quantities of water with little or no effect, INHALING large quantities of water is another story
. It sounds like the space where the trains are running has very poor air circulation and that should be of concern irregardless of the smoke fluid issues.
I figure if it was in any way dangerous it would have killed me ages ago.
But much as I love the smoke I turn it off most of the time. It can get messy and my wife really does not like the smell, which seems to get to every room in the house pretty quickly and then hand around. It's just not worth the fuss over that for me.
I'm more worried about getting welded to the track than the side-affects of the smoke 
my train room has seperate heating and air conditioning with venting to outdoors. human lungs naturally have water vapor in them not oil vapor. i usually run the engine with smoke off but because my son came to visit i turned it on. i will give mega steam a try and see if it is any better. anyway i just thought it would be healthier and cleaner to use distilled water instead of mineral oil for steam.
"anyway i just thought it would be healthier and cleaner to use distilled water instead of mineral oil for steam."
The smoke units were designed to run on smoke fluid. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING BUT SMOKE FUID DOWN THE STACK.
I use Mega-Steam and have never had any problems with air quality in my train room. But, I'm a believer in the old Los Angeles resident's principle of not trusting air that you can't see. 
"anyway i just thought it would be healthier and cleaner to use distilled water instead of mineral oil for steam."
The smoke units were designed to run on smoke fluid. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING BUT SMOKE FUID DOWN THE STACK.
well i should have said and what i meant was future trains or retro-fitted ones designed to use distilled water.
I use Mega-Steam and have never had any problems with air quality in my train room. But, I'm a believer in the old Los Angeles resident's principle of not trusting air that you can't see.
i am absolutely going to try megasteam!
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
