Lionel Vision Line Hudson Whistle Steam Something Interesting

Yep, they keep the element partially heated so you'll get whistle steam immediately, normal operation.

John

Shouldn't I get approximately the same volume with the ornamental whistle in place as when it's out? Not less.

Mike

Hard to say, since the fan isn't running, it's natural convection that's moving the vapor.  I wouldn't worry about it, I see the same thing on most of the whistle steam engines I have.  My Lindbergh Atlantic is really bad for it, it has a pretty significant "leakage" when the whistle is not blowing.

Mike, are you saying that with the whistle in place, and then you blow the whistle, you get very little smoke coming out?  And if you remove the ornamental whistle, then blow the whistle, you get a lot of smoke coming out?

If so, could it be that there is a clog in the ornamental whistle which is preventing the smoke from coming out?

There must be some obstruction because I get huge steam (smoke) with the whistle in place.

Scrapiron

He's talking about when he's not whistling.

Thanks guys,

I guess I wasn't clear.

I'm talking about when I blow the whistle with the ornamental whistle in place. With it in place I get wisps of smoke.

If I take it out and blow the whistle I get a fairly large volume of smoke out of both holes. If I replace the whistle or place my finger over the filler hole the volume of smoke decreases to a wisp.

Leakage of smoke I'm not worried about.

Mike

OK, different scenario!

Obviously, something is blocking the smoke internally.  The only thing that comes to mind is to take a peek at the smoke unit and piping to see what the issue is.

Here is what you may have.  The unit is a bit different than others.  The fan motor is separated from the box with the heater by a section of clear tubing ( I call it fish tank tubing) about 1/2 inch long.  I open them up and clear the air passage going into the heater box to get a clear path of air.

I have a good friend who wants the same amount of smoke to come out the whistle as the front stack.  That is not going to happen.  I also dump the fiberglass wicking and install robe wicking that I Reaganize.  Wicking 691SMKP008.  Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  I have done many of these and the worst thing you can do is give the unit more fluid than is recommended.

Thanks John and Marty,

Marty, that part number is the fiberglass batting, do you replace it with the rope batting?

Now I need to look up Reaganizing.

Mike

The fiberglass pad is junk.  Yes replace it.

Thanks Marty, I'm going to open her up and see what's inside. I have several pieces of the new batting so I'll install one.

Mike

Marty,

I finally got around to checking the whistle steam smoke unit. The clear tube as well as the channel that sits on top of the bowl connects to the outlet and filler holes on the shell are all clear of obstruction. I installed a new wick but didn't Reaganize it. I presume that means shredding it a little instead of leaving it as a twisted rope?

The heating element sits about half way into the bowl, is that about right? Should the wick be wrapped around the heating element?

I still get barely a wisp of smoke, nothing close to what's in your photo.

Thanks again,

Mike

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

Here is what you may have.  The unit is a bit different than others.  The fan motor is separated from the box with the heater by a section of clear tubing ( I call it fish tank tubing) about 1/2 inch long.  I open them up and clear the air passage going into the heater box to get a clear path of air.

I have a good friend who wants the same amount of smoke to come out the whistle as the front stack.  That is not going to happen.  I also dump the fiberglass wicking and install robe wicking that I Reaganize.  Wicking 691SMKP008.  Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  I have done many of these and the worst thing you can do is give the unit more fluid than is recommended.

Thanks for the tip on this engine. I never tinkered with the whistle smoke on this engine I just figured it was a poor smoker .. 

Joe Fermani posted:

Could it be that there is a clog in the ornamental whistle which is preventing the smoke from coming out?

That is worth checking. A whistle is a tiny part, and an internal burr or a flaw could be blocking the smoke.

ReadingFan posted:

Joe Fermani posted:

Could it be that there is a clog in the ornamental whistle which is preventing the smoke from coming out?

That is worth checking. A whistle is a tiny part, and an internal burr or a flaw could be blocking the smoke.

The "steam"/smoke does not come out of the ornamental whistle itself. The whistle itself is the plug for the filler hole for the smoke unit, hence the small O-ring rubber washer around its stem, so that the "steam"/smoke will come out of the smaller outlet hole just forward of the filler hole. So the whistle itself cannot be blocked. I guess if the whistle stem sits too low in the hole it could partially obstruct the flow out of the whistle steam outlet but that would not explain the poor output even with the whistle removed and my finger covering the filler hole.

I'm going to take her apart again and shred the batting and make sure there's a clear path from the smoke unit fan through the heater box and through the smoke outlet then see what happens. Otherwise, I'm stumped.

Mike

Sounds like an obstruction of intake air.  That also can effect the output of smoke.   G

Thanks G, I'll go over the motor too.

Mike

Marty, your layout is Awesome, the Hudson looks so Fine!!! Thanks for the picture. 

Thanks to some additional offline advice from Marty, the whistle steam mystery has been solved. It's not quite up to par with the one in Marty's photo but it's darn close. 

Thanks to everyone for your advice. 

Mike 

tell us more,  my whistle smoke is ok but nothing like the picture! I think you've hit on a problem which we didn't realize we had, but now that we are aware of it, What's the fix???????  Thanks

In a few weeks, I have my good friend Erol (Locolawyer) Gurcan visiting me for a few days.  He has a Lionmaster Challenger that we are going to do the smoke modifications to.  I will photo the steps and post them with smoke before and smoke after pictures.  His will be main smoke and whistle smoke.

Reaganizing is a term I threw out after Mike Reagan did a video showing how he pulled apart (shreaded) rope wicking for a smoke unit.  That is the hot set up.  I love the new wicking MTH uses.  I recently Reaganized some Lionel rope wicking in my MTH Premier Blue Comet and that is a winner.  Great smoker.  Making engines (MTH or Lionel) smoke good is not rocket science.  It is attention to detail when putting it back together.  

Marty, I can't wait to see how you do it yourself.

John, Marty's instructions were pretty simple:

Check the resistor to ensure it was operating at 8 ohms, take the newer braided smoke unit batting, pull it apart until it was shredded then ball it up, put the balled up batting into the smoke unit bowl, make sure the inlet hole from the smoke unit motor and outlet hole are clear of batting. Then put the u it back together making sure the small piece of clear tubing between the motor and the bulb is properly connected. 

That's it! I'm sure Marty's post will make it all perfectly clear. 

Mike

One other important step, make sure the screws holding the smoke resistor to the PCB are tight, that's a fairly common issue.