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Hey guys,

Just received my new Vision line Niagra Friday and got it lubed and smoke fluid in it last night. I only got to run it for about 20 minutes last night but I did notice that everything except the tender smoke unit was working fine. Today I pulled the tender apart and took the top off the smoke unit to see if there was something obvious that was causing the problem. The batting was wet with fluid and it had two yellowish/brown spots in it from the two heat coils getting hot. The little fans turned freely by hand also so nothing obvious. Put everything back together and still no joy. I even turned the sound completely down so I could hear if the smoke unit was running and it makes no sound whatsoever. I checked the manual to see if there was something I had missed and it said the locomotive had to be moving when you pushed and held the water key for the smoke effect to operate. Tried forward, reverse, slow, fast..........I'm out of options.

Any ideas or suggestions before I call Lionel and send this thing back for service? I have dozens of Lionel Legacy locomotives but his is my very first Vision line locomotive.  I just can't believe something is DOA on it!!

Thanks for the replies in advance!!

Rick

Last edited by Rick Hayes
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Not trying to be a SA, but is the smoke unit switch in the on position?  My remote and base were at 1.52 and the water fill button worked and tender smoke worked; downloaded 1.61 and 1.60 and tender smoke still worked.  Is that felt piece on the smoke fill cap still positioned over the fill port on the tender?  On your remote, do you have the smoke levels set to at least medium?  Can you measure the amp draw - on a ZWL there are amp meters and when you first fire up a locomotive with a smoke unit on, amps will jump to about 4.x and after a few seconds fall to 2.x?

Last edited by RickM46

This is 1/2 of the reasons my loco went back to Lionel two weeks ago; the only difference in my tender smoke issue is that the smoke unit worked well WHEN it worked, which was randomly. The "sounds" that accompany the smoke ALWAYS worked. Do you get sounds every time you activate this smoke feature, or no sounds? I surmised the issue with mine was something on the smoke control board as I knew the command from my Cab2 was being received.

Don't want to be a SA either, did you use the Premium Lionel Smoke? I have seen 3 come out of the box an no issues. Mine, have not tried yet. Hoping to do that this week. Also, as a few folks mentioned make sure the unit is on and both remote and base are updated to the latest version. If not, call Lionel.

Hey all.......just an update on this little "issue". First off........thank you all so much for bouncing all your ideas off me. I had tried pretty much everything that you all had mentioned to no avail. I called Lionel today and as usual they were MORE THAN helpful in getting my locomotive into their warranty return system and getting me an RMA number to return it. HOWEVER.........after returning home this afternoon I decided to give it one more try. Have you ever heard the old saying can't see the forest for the trees!!?? Well......I was SO upset about this VERY expensive locomotive not functioning properly I "couldn't see the forest for the trees"!!  Fired the locomotive up for one last try and hit the "button" but still no smoke. While it was running around the track I hit the water tower (wheel) button just to see what happened and low and behold.......SMOKE!!!  LOTS of smoke!!! I had been hitting the steam blow down button just below the water tower button the whole time!! I was getting the steam blow down sound and I was thinking that was the water scoop sound!! After a quick check of the included "helpful" locomotive manual I was informed as to which button would have given me the tender smoke effect all along!!

So........this goes to show that even after 53 years of life on this earth we can STILL miss the simple things!! LOL!!

All is well with the world again!! Thanks to you guys for always coming through with your input!!

Rick

Welcome to the club!!  How about this: new Niagara, set all smoke switches to off, supply 15 drops to the main stack, 15 to the pop off, 15 to the tender, supply power, CAB2 start of engine, no smoke!  Wonder what could have gone wrong!!  DOH, set main stack switch to ON, still no smoke.  Rats, specter of back to Lionel.  Come back later, DOH, set smoke on CAB2 remote from off to medium.  Heavens -- smoke!  What will they think of next??

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