hot chocolate, very berry, original cedar, Christmas pine, gingerbread, to name a few that I use and they all smell just like they state.

I like apple.

I use the Clove Sensation, my wife likes it.

One is too real! Unless your idea of fun is standing over a chimney I would avoid coal smoke. Also Nada does not live up to its name. Almost as nauseating as coal smoke.

Pete

I've been through quite a bit of Mega-steam before finally settling on what I like. Christmas pine, fireplace, and smoke pellet. Most of the other scents I've tried weren't for me.

     Thanks everyone for your replies so far. I was thinking of getting Vanilla, Cinnamon Roll, Apple Harvest and Very Cherry. When I was young the fruits and vegies. would start coming in in the fall and I would start setting up the trains in the basement for the holidays. The smells of mother cooking/baking for the holidays has always been A good memory for me. Seeing all the extended family for the holiday season was exciting and they all seemed to like coming down to the basement to see what new layout I built each year looked like. It is all good memories of days gone by but now some have passed and most of the other family members are to busy to come around but you can still close your eyes and remember how it was back in those days. Hopefully getting A variety of the products can bring back A little piece of that when I get the layout up and running this year. Thanks and take care. Choo Choo Kenny

If your LHS has some on hand, grab a few bottles and just smell the lid. I don't have any, but I have done this method for future reference. From what I've smelled in the store, Hot Chocolate is really nice, rich chocolate smell. BBQ and Frying Bacon are weird--Bacon smells like Beggin' dog treats. Cut grass smells like the real thing, if you like that smell. Hope this helps.

Everyone's taste is different to what they like but what ever you order should be spot on as far as smelling like the real deal. I think you should try "NADA" to the rest of your order. If some of the fruity scents are a bit too strong for you just mix NADA in when you refill.  I use 20 drops of NADA and 3 drops of the scent I'm using at the time.   I stay away from the diesel and coal burning scents.  That is a little too real for me and definitely my wife! 

Christmas Berry, the  best ever!

Choo Choo Kenny,

For almost 15 years now we have produced the "World's Finest Smoke Fluid" and we offer 50 different scents from the holiday and seasonal scents, to the smells of the prototype locomotives. NADA was designed for those who have family members who are sensitive to the smell of smoke. It is not just smoke fluid without any scent...as it has special additives to take away the smell of smoke. So it smells like nothing. It is one of our best sellers. It has been received very well by those who have spouses who don't like the smells of traditional model train smoke. That is why we are in business: "If she's not happy, we are not happy!" And we all abide by the golden rule: "Happy wife make for happy life!"

The scents are very subjective depending on the user. Some people love the smell of cut grass...others can't stand it.  Coal-fired Steamer is one of the top sellers in the line, but we don't suggest using the strong smell of a live steamer in a small confined train room or where the lady of the house will smell the unique strong smell of burning coal.

The other problem we note is that the wicking material has a memory of sorts. If you have been using a strong smoke fluid smell and then switch to say, NADA, the original smell is going to last a loooooooooooong time and it will appear that NADA is not at all unscented. The wicking material has been tainted...any scent you put in the smoke unit will take a long time to change.  That is where our ELIMINATOR (smoke unit cleanser will work).  (We actually prime all new locos with NADA and then they don't have any scent. That makes it much easier to use a new scent or a favorite scent and the smoke smells as it is intended.

With each scent we make we follow strict guidelines and a very strict quality control to make sure the smoke fluid in the bottle smells exactly like the scent on the lable. Christmas Pine smells just like Christmas pine; Hot Chocolate smells just like a cup of hot chocolate, and so on.

The problem comes in that the scents are very subjective...of the 50 different scents in our line, most people have about 5 favorites;  and everyone has their own personal favorites. It is a personal choice and everyone's olfactory nerves react differently to different smells.

Most of the smoke fluid on the market today is manufactured overseas where quality control can be an issue. We are proud that JT's Mega-Steam is made right here in the U.S.A. by model railroad people who know trains and model train people. We use nothing but the best ingredients to ensure that our product will be the same today and tomorrow and into the future. We take great pride in our product.

Thanks for the question. 

Jeb Kriigel

JT's Mega-Steam,LLC

www.megasteam.com

The Frying Bacon sure smells like real bacon to anybody here who has smelled it. In fact, the first time I tried it our tomcat was napping under the layout. When he got a whiff of it he made a beeline to the kitchen looking for a snack!!! Really dejected looking when he came back to the layout.

Andy: I was using the bacon scent in my diner on my floor Christmas layout and had to stop because my Jack Russell terriers kept going onto the layout to sniff it out.

Guy

Every year, I run my Polar Express with the Hot Chocolate scent, and almost everyone "gets it" -- even non-train people.  I am also fond of the fruit scents.

Andy

I love smoke pellet scent!   I just bought a bottle of diesel to use in my new MTH heritage units.  Thinking about getting the coal scent next for some of the non postwar  steamers

" Also Nada does not live up to its name. Almost as nauseating as coal smoke."

I disagree completely. It was NADA that allowed me to start using smoke again.  Other stuff would send me into respiratory distress. I can also use Eliminator. Good for noisy smoke fans. 

Is the diesel smoke scent close to the real thing?

I love X-Mas Berry, it is now a christmas memory by smell.

year round I run coal fired steamer in my steam engines, it gets a big reaction when I tell guests that's the scent a real steamer would produce. I need to order a few new bottles. 

I run all my locomotives conventionally, which may be why my experience with Mega-Steam has been less than satisfactory.  Most recently, my bottle of Christmas Pine arrived, and it's been a disappointment.  It smells very pungent right out of the bottle, but what comes out of the stack has a faint waxy odor and that's it.  Worse, there's very little visible smoke.  I regret to say that Lionel's Premium Smoke Fluid produced much better smoke from all my steamers.

All of my steam locomotives have piston smoke generators.  Perhaps Mega-Steam should only be used with the fan-type units and 18v command control.

Others may have different experiences; that's mine.

Balshis,

I tried to email you personally, but didn't find your email in your OGR Forum profile?

Sorry to hear of your disappointment with Christmas Pine. That is strange...it should smell like a Christmas pine right out of the bottle. We have many different locomotives on our layout...some modern and some older post war styles and we find that our product beats all of the competitors with smoke output and scent. May we suggest adding more cars to the train so that the power is up slightly? That sometimes hleps with smoke output.

Regarding the scent. If when you open the bottle you find that it does not smell like Pine, please let us know so that we can correct the problem.  We care about every bottle that goes out of our facility.  We aim to please. Without customers like you we don't have a business!

Jeb Kriigel

JT's Mega-Steam

"World's Finest Smoke Fluid"

www.megasteam.com

jkmegasteam@aol.com

The "coffee" scent smells like coffee coming out of my Kona coffee tank car.

I used various scents of Mega-Steam all produced a very good smoke scent as advertised. I tried other brands when I first started operating, I settled on using 100% Mega-Steam. 

Bob

I have been using Mega-Steam products for many years and never a problem. I consider Mega-Steam to be second to none. The best of the best!

...keep the rails polished...

John,

You are welcome at any time to email us (off forum) with questions or concerns as mentioned previously.  We do not feel that your intent was to "cast aspersions" on our product. We do appreciate your response.  Our main concern is customer satisfaction. If it is not working for you, then we attempt to help solve the issue. We are model train people ourselves and we care about helping fellow model railroaders and we want to promote our hobby.

It does smell like pine right out of the bottle. That is good. When it smokes, you don't smell pine. That could be due to several factors.  Perhaps the wicking material in the smoke units of your locomotives is old or has been used with some other smoke fluid and a residue has built up. May we suggest a simple solution:  fill the locomotives in the evening with "Christmas Pine"and let them sit overnight. Then operate them the next day and continue operating them by adding smoke fluid as needed. Eventually, after 5-6 filling cycles the Mega-Steam should start to smell like Christmas Pine. Now, we do offer another great product that works great in many situations like yours to help speed up the transition and also cleanse the smoke units so that the preferred scent does smell like it is supposed to.  That is our "ELIMINATOR".  see www.megasteam.com for more information. This product was designed expressly for situations like yours.

Our concern is just to help. With almost 15 years in the smoke fluid business, we consider ourselves to be knowledgeable with smoke fluids and smoke units, and we respond to those who are having questions and problems. Thanks for letting us attempt to help.

 -Jeb Kriigel

"You've tried the rest, now try the best"

JT's Mega-Steam

"World's finest smoke fluid!"

Yes, the Hot Chocolate is easily identified by even those with dulled sniffers.

Sorry to hear that. Ran Mega-Steam in both a Marx steamer and a Lionel Postwar Turbine friends brought over last week and it worked great. About 11 to 13 volts depending upon load.

Have begun using Cranberry Woods as guest scent after another friend recommended it. We give small bottles to guests so they can use it at home and the scent continues when they return.

I will try that.  Thank you.

I must find it fun? The coal and oil smoke are my favorites... I also run the Big Boy signature scent in my VL. I'm not really sure what the difference between that and coal is? Can some one explain? Anyways, I love running my trains a smelling coal and oil burning. Heck, I would even enjoy coal soot on my face if that where possible. As a pilot I love the smell of JP8 and 5606 too. That realism is what brings back memories and sends the imagination wild. It's there is probably some Freudian term for it but I for one would like to thank mega-steam for the experience. Note that I use the eliminator and it does a good job as I always use pine tree during x-mas as require by my girlfriend. Smells better than those hang on tree scents that are so popular.