Original postwar smoke pellets

Compared to what? Pellets never did smoke much and not near as much as liquid. There have been attempts to make the heating element hotter but without much success. Burns out sooner.

Al

The original pellets do not get stale. They are made of M-terphynel, which i assume I have spelled wrong. The new ones are supposedly made from the same stuff.

One way to get a little more smoke is to preheat the smoke unit in neutral with the transformer turned up. It will make more smoke for a while until it cools down again.

Even though you want to stick with pills, you can try fluid. Just put some in. No need to do any modifications to the smoke unit at all and no harm will come from it.

To the best of my knowledge, smoke pills do not go bad. Sometimes the pellets fall apart, but you can scoup the powder and use it.

One of the common problems with pellet type smoke units is too much smoke material.

When there is too much pellet material in the smoke pot, more energy is required to get it melted.

When there is way too much pellet material, the smoke pot can overflow, and clog the little duct that causes the puffing.

Postwar liquid smoke units could be overfilled too.

The instructions that came with pellet smoke engines warned the customer to make certain a pellet was completely consumed before adding another.

That's often the problem. The pellets turn liquid when heated, then the liquid leaks into other parts of the mechanism, like the air hole, and the liquid cools and hardens. Since it is not in contact with the heating element, it never re-melts again, but causes a clog. Then the unit must be disassembled to be cleaned.

That's why I always recommend liquid - it doesn't harden at room temperature.

TonyGG1,

If you want your loco to really smoke, just try some smoke fluid. 2-3 drops is all you need to produce a lot of smoke...thats about the same amount as a pellet would be if it were melted. I have used only smoke fluid in my older locos with great results. JT's Mega-Steam even produces a scented fluid called "Smoke Pellet" which smells just like the old pills.

just my 2 scents!

Take your old smoke unit apart and clean it really well. Then replace the wadding with new material. After that, drop in about 7 drops of smoke fluid and watch that thing puff and puff for a long time. Jeff Kane sells "pac man" shaped wadding that works better than anything I tried. They hold fluid for a long time. Wet the new wadding a little before you reinsert the heater element.

Rob

You want real heavy smoke?

Try an aspirin, that's what my brother and I did, many moons ago, until our parents caught us!!!!!!!!!!

Smokes great, but smells like ----!

By the way, no cleaning and the units still work, but now I use a few drops of liquid smoke, which smokes better than the pills.

RJL

Which would you rather inhale, oil vapors or dust particles?

Same goes for what gets deposited on everything in the room where you run your trains.