K Line Smoking Caboose Question

Check underneath for a conventional/command switch.

If there is no switch, I recommend opening it up and putting a 3A diode in series with one of the smoke unit leads.  That cuts the power way down and will prevent it melting the sides and roof.  If it doesn't have a switch, it was designed for lower voltages.

Doc,

The only switch on it is an ON/OFF switch. It actually produces quite a bit of smoke. Much more than other Seuthe units I have. So, maybe it's not a Seuthe. But I do want to make sure I'm not giving it too much voltage. I've turned off the smoke until I resolve this.

Roger

John,

That's what I thought. I've got an extra 6 amp diode in my parts box. I assume that that would be ok. But if you think that the 3 will be better for it, I'll get one. Thanks!

Roger

You are probably overcooking it.  I've see a number of these with melted sides and roofs because of the excess voltage.

Time for a diode.

6A is fine, it's just excessive.

definitely heed gunrunners advise, I have melted my share of K-Line caboose roofs. it is a fanless unit, probably making so much smoke because it is getting too hot. soon the wicking will char and the smoke will be less.

I actually only ran it one loop around the layout. Saw the volume of smoke and figured it was time to start a thread. 

And speaking of melting roofs......I'm doing some mods on an SW 1500 dummy. Among other things, I'm adding all sorts of lights. I ALWAYS use LEDs. But this time, for a "cabin" light, I used an 18V grain of rice (wheat?) figuring that it produces more "space" lighting and....at 18V, wouldn't be a problem with heat. Well, I figured wrong. I only ran it for about a half hour and I just noticed a dimple in the roof. That tiny bulb melted the thick plastic.  Not pleased.

Roger

What I do for cab lights is use incandescent bulbs, but I run them at a lower than rated voltage.  I like the dispersion of the light with incandescent bulbs better for cab lighting. I also use fairly low current bulbs.  I can run them at my working voltage and hold them between my fingers for as long as I like I hardly feel any heat.

For all the other lighting, I typically use LED's.

I've melted a roof on one of my K-line smokers running it at command voltage.  And mine didn't hardly smoke too, so I just have turned the smoke units off.  I wish they did have a fan, it'd be nice to see smoke come out of them better.  Maybe a future project since I need to dig into it anyway because it's fallen victim to the cooked spring problem, and I want to convert it to LEDs.

John,

I took the cab light out this afternoon. I think I'll put a flashing beacon in the dimple. That will work.   As for a replacement for the cab light, Evans recently came out with chip LEDs. I've got those in my Menards Door Factory building and they work great for interior light. So, I ordered two sizes and I'll see which I like better. He also told me that they are in the testing process now for a larger chip. Time will tell.       I like the dispersion on incandescents as well.....reason I put it in there. But I thought that tiny bulb wouldn't get appreciably hot. Wrong.

Put the diode in the caboose and it reduced the smoke output to much more prototypical levels. Takes longer to get started, but it will last longer. I replaced the wicking while I was in there. 

Roger