I got this Mogul a couple of years ago, and was always dissapointed in it's smoke production.
Well check it out now:
Anyone can do the same with any fan driven Lionel smoke unit.
I basically did my standard Lionel smoke unit tune up:
-drilled the air intake hole out to 3/16" diameter
-discarded the thick charred wad of Lionel packing material
-cut the scorched fiberglass sleeve off the resistor (very carefully so as to not damage the fine nichrome wire!)
-repacked the unit with a 4" length of tiki torch wick material
This newer Lionel unit has a 7-8 ohm element, so I left it alone.
Upon testing it out I was pleased to discover that it already puffs in sequence with the sounds. So now it looks pretty cool.
If you have never had a small engine like this apart, it is very cramped and difficult to get back together without pinching wires or wire connectors. And there is no less than 6 individual wire connectors between the boiler casting and the motor base. I hope I never have to take this one apart again.
Can any Lionel techs out there tell me how the puffing is done in these newer Lionel engines?
I presume since there is only one cherry switch that it must be electronically tied into the Railsounds chuff circuitry somehow.
Rod
