LIONEL NORTHERN SMOKE UNIT QUESTION

I have the WP mountain and had the same problem.

Lionel uses a 27 ohm element, and it just simply doesn't cut it.

I swapped mine over to an MTH 16 ohm element, drilled out the air intake hole to about 3/16", junked the Lionel wadding and replaced it with tiki torch wicking, and voila. Vast improvement.

 

There was a thread on this subject about 2-3 months ago.

 

Rod

That is a puffer unit. About all you can do is replace the wick (which is most likely scorched and stiff, given the age of that engine) and make sure the piston is traveling freely and there is no obstruction to airflow. Your other option is to replace the smoke unit with a fan-type unit. That would most likely be a fair amount of work and require considerable skill - or the budget to pay someone else to do it. Most upgrades of that kind are in the $100 bracket, parts and labor. I'm upgrading mine to TMCC and repainting it for the Milwaukee Road (the boiler is very similar to the Milwaukee's S-3), but I'm leaving the smoke unit as is. 

Rod is right! I have a brand new legacy mikado and use the smoke constatly on high all the time. I just checked the wick and it was charred to the bottom of the element. Scraped off the charred stuff and put in new mth wick and it smokes like new again maybe better!

Sorry; mine is a fan driven unit, and I assumed yours was the same basic idea.

I stand corrected if its a puffer style unit.

Though I would still check the resistor, and if its the standard 27 ohm, you could still replace it with a 20 ohm, or MTH 16 ohm, and it will make a world of difference. In my experience, the 27 ohm resistor simply does not get hot enough to make a meaningful amount of smoke.

 

Rod

That makes sense. I have an old Lionel 0-4-0 switcher that has that type unit, and it won't smoke until you crank the voltage up to where it's going 200 miles an hour. A lower ohm resistor would most likely improve matters a lot - in fact, I might do it on mine whenever I get around to finishing the TMCC installation and repaint. You need to be very careful replacing the resistor in a puffer unit to be sure the hot lead is fully isolated from the metal body of the smoke unit. The slightest gap in the insulation and it will short. I had one short out in a K-Line engine with TMCC and it fried the smoke control triac on the R2LC board. 

Hi potrzbe, what did you do to increase your smoke output. On a rock I just got I had the same anemic smoke output. I found the cam on the axle just spins resulting in no flapper action. On a old post Rob suggested putting CA on the axle thereby adhering the cam to the axle. I am also thinking about taking a pair of needle nose vice grips to score the axle with the idea the cam may bite. Any thoughts?

PotRzbe Take a look at this thread https://ogrforum.com/d...nt/14804764741592777 Maybe what Alex did to my PRR J1a would work for you Northern. I rum command control don't know if you do but these modifications really help the J1a smoke like a champ. JohnB

Nope again.  The Lackawanna Northern has the relatively rare vertical dual-chamber unit.  Jim Barrett wrote on how to fix this years ago. 

 

1.  Remove the screws from the top of the unit.

 

2.  Slide the top along with the element and attendant baffle out of the chamber.  You will see that the element is mounted along one side of the die-cast baffle that separates the chamber in two.

 

3.  Drill a 1/4" hole through the die-cast baffle at the center-point of the element. 

 

4.  Reassemble.

 

The problem with this smoke unit design is that there is a tiny bit of wiggle room between too little fluid and too much.  Too much, and the air-flow stops at the bottom of the baffle which is then submerged.  Too little and there's no smoke.

 

By drilling the hole through the baffle, you get more air-flow.

 

This unit can also be found in the B-6sb, and the 1997 #238E.

 

Jon