So, my Legacy Sante Fe Northern went back to Lionel under warranty to have its smoke unit repaired. I got it back, everything worked fine and it saw maybe two hours of run time....until about a month or so ago.
Everything was working fine until the smoke stopped coming out of the stack. (Whistle Steam, sound and everything else worked 100%).
I went the "blow compressed air into the smoke stack" route....and that worked great. (Better than I imagined, actually.) Attached is the video of my prodigious smoke output.
Then, after a nice two hour run session, the smoke stopped working. All other features work. But now, I seem to hear a fan motor running at continuous MAX RPM...with no smoke coming of the stack. Any unused smoke fluid appears to have been spit out of the stack in liquid form.
So, my guess is that smoke unit #2 is now junk....and I'm inclined to have Stockyard Express install an MTH smoke unit in my otherwise fine Lionel steam engine.
But, before I do so, I have to ask this question: Is my smoke unit definitely toast....or is there something else possibly wrong here?
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for your help!