I have 19 engines, 16 are Lionel and 1/2 if them have malfunctioning smoke units. I am thinking of starting with MTH. Are their smoke units more reliable. Has Lionel started using a more reliable smoke unit? Thanks for your input.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Yea !! Carolina man, !!!, Greetings from Tenn. I will from now on only
purchase MTH, units if I desire smoke capbablity. **** If you are running
conventional ***. My 3 MTH, smoke like, well, chimneys. My understanding
from others on this forum, the Newer electronic Lionels do not respond, as
well to conventional running. I did watch Mikes video enhancement and it worked,
as an improvement. I need to run this unit under a command system. OH !
PW- Lionel Steamers, absolutely no problem, and smokes, to meet my pleasure.
I believe that Lionel have resolved the smoke unit problems now. I've had no fan motor problems with any of the last 5 Legacy locomotives that I have purchased this year.
Also, all of my Legacy locomotives smoke like chimneys. The only ones that could do better are those on my few older conventional locomotives. But even they work fine once they have enough voltage. Using a chopped-wave transformer improves things too at lower voltages. 
As Nicole stated above all my newer Lionel engines put out more smoke than I care to have in the train room. Keep a good wick in them and any brand should smoke.
I have bought 17 Vision and Legacy Locos in the last three years. All of the smoke units have worked well out of the box and none has given a problem subsequent operation, but I run smoke so rarely that I am not a good test of durability.
I hear people say that Lionel units don't smoke as well/much as MTH. They smoke quite enough to annoy my wife into "high-decibel scolding mode" if I forget to turn the smoke off, I know that.
I am a fan of Lionel but their smoke units are still finicky. My new sd 70 is in the shop for repair for the blinking light smoke problem. Older tmcc locos seem to have more trouble free smoke units.
Fred
Originally Posted by ricklab:
I have 19 engines, 16 are Lionel and 1/2 if them have malfunctioning smoke units. I am thinking of starting with MTH. Are their smoke units more reliable. Has Lionel started using a more reliable smoke unit? Thanks for your input.
The smoke units do require maintenance, as you know. They are reliable. If you have conventional engines you can make them smoke like..well...
Alex M has a mod that rebuilds and improves the puffer units. Here.
The Lionel batting to use is part # 691SMKP008.
Finally, the last conventional that I had (a Berk Jr.), needed around 7 volts before enough heat went to the smoke unit. But, at that speed, it ran like H$@!. So, you need to install diodes to the motor leads to reduce the voltage it gets, thereby increasing the voltage safely to the smoke resistor.
If you cooked a resistor, that's cheap also.
I don't have the link for that, but gunnrunnerjohn and Dale M. discuss it.
A few dollars in parts per engine and a 1/2 - 1 hour time.
Alex has even added lobes to the puffer cam to get 4 puffs per revolution.
If you have fan units, Mike at Lionel has a video to rebuild those. Usually new batting is all that's needed.
Take some time and try one. You'll be happy.
Like it has been mentioned already older TMCC smoke units do require a little maintenance.
I have several that I modified as follows:
1) Opened up the hole per the Lionel video
2) Replaced the resistor with a MTH resistor
3) Replace the batting with that from a tiki torch wick
They smoke like a devil now and I actually end up having to turn them off!!
Jeff, Like to see this information:
how do you get a MTH , Resistor
that may help me!!
thanks
The MTH standard resistor is 16 ohms. That's a bit low for the R2LC triac, and may result in killing it. I had a couple of resistors that were 22 ohms and they really worked great in TMCC locomotives, but I've yet to find a source for them again.
I bought a csx ac 6000 ( 6-18585) in March, and the southern crescent ( 6-11334), I run legacy and both are on the blinking lights and the sourhern now has stopped with the whistle smoke.
I have a Vision Line Hudson, Smokes works (sometimes) from the main stack, . The Whistle smoke will work (now and then) when entering AUX 1, but not while actually running.
Yes, there are 3 blinking lights that start blinking if you blow the horn via cab 2.
Still I have ZERO regrets (smoke excluded) with the performance of my Vision Line.
Brent
Originally Posted by TGP:
Jeff, Like to see this information:
how do you get a MTH , Resistor
that may help me!!
thanks
Hit the LHS that stocked plenty of MTH products and bought them. About 75 cents each!
Originally Posted by ricklab:
I bought a csx ac 6000 ( 6-18585) in March, and the southern crescent ( 6-11334), I run legacy and both are on the blinking lights and the sourhern now has stopped with the whistle smoke.
I also have the same Southern Crescent loco and had similar problems. I hardly used my smoke units. The main stack quit altogether, while the smoke whistle worked but had a loud whirling sound when the whistle was activated. It was almost as loud as the whistle itself. Sent it in a month ago and got it back 2 weeks later problem-free.
