Lionel Pocahontas On the Road Again

Interesting discovery, that one engine and passenger car must be using a lot of power. I think some of the smoke units need more fluid than what the manufacturer's recommend. Laidoffsick did a video on a smoke wick replacement, he had to use a ton more fluid than was recommended to get smoke going. Getting the fluid amount right is a tough call, unless you take the engine apart and fill by eye. We need a smoke fluid gauge, or sight glass like on boiler.

Yes, I saw the video Laidoffsick had done and I think he was up around 80 drops of fluid to get the wicking saturated.  I have been more conservative; today, I added about 20 drops in 5 drop increments on short runs.  It is not bellowing yet but does OK.  I have been watching the ammeter on the transformer and notice that when smoke production is decent, it is pulling 2 amps plus a hair.  On my other locos, it took a number of weeks of conservative additions before they smoked well.

Oh, one last thing, on the Pocahontas engine, at first, I couldn't turn off the smoke unit using the manual switch.  T** looked at that too and now, it works.  I have had good luck with Lionel techs.

Found the 2nd of laidoffsick's videos:

Too much fluid and you soak the thing, boards included. Too little and you burn up the wick. I guess it's just experience with each particular engine that eventually gets us to the right amount. Now, if I could only remember how much I put in which engine and when...

A little over 2 amps should not be taxing to a CW-80? Those should be good for at least 4 amps. I wouldn't think one passenger car would draw 2 amps, but I don't have any nor do I have a CW-80 so nothing to compare with. All I have is diesels and they all draw right around an amp with full smoke on. I probably wouldn't have suspected the CW-80 either? Sounds like Lionel found and fixed a couple of other things as well, so probably worth the return. They do have good repair techs too and looks like yours was checking things closely.

I have only sent one item back for repair, my Legacy base which they fixed and I got back in just over a month. Guess they were really busy at the time? They did pay return shipping though, which was nice, but it was under warranty. I have had very good luck dealing with Lionel, MTH, and Atlas for parts and other support. I think they all try pretty hard to keep us happy.

I have a 3751 Santa Fe that gave me the 3 blinks after too much fluid was added. I turned it off and let it sit overnight and all has worked perfectly ever since.

Rod Miller

I just have one question…If you own a ZW-L..why is your CW-80 not in the garbage can?Much less hooked up to your track?Nick

rockstars1989 posted:

I just have one question…If you own a ZW-L..why is your CW-80 not in the garbage can?Much less hooked up to your track?Nick

At the time I bought the Pocahontas set, I thought I could get away with the CW-80 (cheap but then not cheap).  Didn't have the ZW-L available then.  Anyway, I will use the CW-80 to run accessories .......some day.

rtr12 posted:

Too much fluid and you soak the thing, boards included. Too little and you burn up the wick. I guess it's just experience with each particular engine that eventually gets us to the right amount. Now, if I could only remember how much I put in which engine and when...

A little over 2 amps should not be taxing to a CW-80? Those should be good for at least 4 amps. I wouldn't think one passenger car would draw 2 amps, but I don't have any nor do I have a CW-80 so nothing to compare with. All I have is diesels and they all draw right around an amp with full smoke on. I probably wouldn't have suspected the CW-80 either? Sounds like Lionel found and fixed a couple of other things as well, so probably worth the return. They do have good repair techs too and looks like yours was checking things closely.

I have only sent one item back for repair, my Legacy base which they fixed and I got back in just over a month. Guess they were really busy at the time? They did pay return shipping though, which was nice, but it was under warranty. I have had very good luck dealing with Lionel, MTH, and Atlas for parts and other support. I think they all try pretty hard to keep us happy.

Yes rtr12, you are right, getting the smoke fluid dose is almost an art with Lionel engines.  So far, in one day, I have added about 40 drops in 5-10 drop intervals.  It seems the more of an accumulation, the more it gets close to bellowing smoke.  Now, is when it gets dicey - should I add just 5 more or not.  After watching laidoffsick's video, I think there is a bit of leeway if you count the drops and not squirt an eyedropper full into the stack.

I was surprised the CW80 acted the way it did; but, ever since the ZW-L, no issues yet.  I can only re-iterate what the Lionel tech said - he didn't touch the smoke unit.  Anyway, giving me a personal call about the matter was a nice touch.

romiller49 posted:

I have a 3751 Santa Fe that gave me the 3 blinks after too much fluid was added. I turned it off and let it sit overnight and all has worked perfectly ever since.

Rod Miller

Rod, I have read on this forum where some guys do what you said and others turn the loco upside down and shake it and leave it upside down over night to clear the fault code with the smoke unit.

See the video below.

I constructed a temporary layout around the Christmas tree with the Pocahontas.  I only unpacked 2 of the 4 passenger cars.  I had a lot of fun gathering all the stuff.  Found the beacons, floodlights, and water tower on ebay.  Found the village at a garage sale - $11 for all the buildings.  Used a Canon A2500 Power Shot to do the video.

See: https://youtu.be/gXD2a8xdV0g

Rick,

    You may want to think about investing in a Legacy System. The next best thing after keeping the smoke fluid full and blowing down the stack to fix smoke issues is running under Legacy in 18 volts. Any engine will produce more smoke under 18 volts rather than running in conventional. There are many other benefits to running in Legacy mode and I do not what to steal your thread.

JohnB

johnB,

Got you covered.  I am in Florida for the winter; but, back at my residence in Indiana, I do have the Legacy Command set 990; just didn't bring it with me.  That will definitely make running the Pocahontas better.  It was while I was in Florida that I finally found the Pocahontas set and had to quickly pull the trigger.