Lionchief Plus smoke

They do smoke in transformer mode.  They do smoke better in remote mode.

Marty do they have to be running fast, maybe too fast in conventional to smoke much? In Lionchief mode 18 volt is being applied to the track just like in Legacy. In the older TMCC locos like the PRR M1A for example I have  it smoke well at moderate voltages in conventional but not so for some Legacy locos I own.

In conventional, the more voltage on the track the more smoke.  The smoke is not great but ok.  All the LC+ we do smoke work on at Charles Ro gets the rope (Shreded) wicking.   It works better.  Part number 691SMKP008.  If you put too muck smoke fluid in with the fiberglass pad, the saturated pad acts as a cooling pad on the heater and you will not get any smoke or poor smoke.  Be aware of the limits.

A LC+ smoke unit with the right wicking will become a good smoker.

I agree with Marty's claim about improving smoke output with the 691SMKP008 wicking material. I recently had a Lionchief + Hudson that doubled its output after this change. The only thing that makes me sweat are those wee little screws that are almost irreversibly driven through the PCB into the smoke unit housing. If you can get them out once, and put them back in without stripping them, you're doing good. Anyone know the part replacement number for these hellacious little screws that get destroyed all the time?

I can't find my notes from some experimenting I did several months back, but I seem to recall that the LionChief Plus, NW2 engine I used for testing actually smoked at lower track voltages in conventional than in remote mode.  If I recall about 13VAC in conventional produced the same amount of smoke as any higher voltage, whereas in remote mode at least 16VAC was needed to achieve that level of smoke output.  

In practice, however, you'll see more smoke in the remote mode typically, because you are usually applying around 18VAC to the track where as in conventional you will often be in the less than 13 volt range, where smoke output is poor.  

Now, if you use a modern transformer that outputs a shark-fin, often called "chopped" wave form you should get good quality smoke output with as little as 1/4 throttle.  This is because with this type of transformer the smoke unit will receive full throttle voltage even at lower speeds.  If good smoke output is high on your list of priorities, a 'chopped' wave transformer will help greatly on modern engines with lionel's fan-driven smoke units.  

Here's a little demonstration I did on this several months back.  The grey meter shows the RMS AC voltage from the transformer and the red meter shows the voltage that the smoke unit will get from that voltage on a chopped wave transformer.  

JGL

I have the R&N 425, and it smokes like a chimney.  Fantastic smoke unit for the price point.  

My LC+ NW-2 smokes great. Totally satisfied with it.

I rarely run it in conventional w/o the remote but will have to test it out.