Polar Express Smoke Unit

Spring in first, than piston, and lever sits on piston bottom and presses it up to puff, and the spring pushes it down when lever goes down.  These are not great smokers.  G

thank you for responding    what way does the piston go??...it has a open side and a closed side...it looks like it can go in either way...tks!

Closed/dome up, open/skirt down.

Thank you!!!   back together   any tips on how to get this to smoke a bit more???

How many drops of fluid are you putting in?

Tis true they are not good smokers. if you have overfilled with fluid,  you can hold the engine slightly off the rails and power up in forward or reverse. That will blow it out and burn it off.

Patrick M posted:

Thank you!!!   back together   any tips on how to get this to smoke a bit more???

If it is the LionChief version it should smoke good. Use Lionel premium or JT's Mega Steam. If it's the conventional/transformer controlled model, not much you can do. The better fluids will help some in that one.

In neutral run voltage up towards max for about 30seconds.   Lower voltage to normal around 8-10volts and press direction button.  Adjust throttle as necessary.  Should smoke for a while since you pre heated the element with high voltage.   G

I have the conventional one and it smokes up a storm. So much so that it becomes annoying after awhile.

Jerry

baltimoretrainworks posted:

I have the conventional one and it smokes up a storm. So much so that it becomes annoying after awhile.

 

Jerry

Different years have different elements.  I believe the later have the coated 30-32ohm resistor.  It does not smoke up a storm and never will.  G

I've replaced that ceramic resistor for several folks, they were much happier with the results after the replacement.  One guy brought a brand new one back and swore the smoke was not working.  It was, just needed about 18 volts on the track to get any smoke!   With a 22 ohm resistor, he's much happier, he gets smoke at normal operating voltages.

John where does one get this resistor?.....thank you to all for responding!

Electronic house.  You want a wire wound with 2-3Watt rating.  G

Here's a couple suitable ones.

20 ohm: http://www.digikey.com/product...PC3W20.0CT-ND/596626

22 ohm: http://www.digikey.com/product...2R/22AECT-ND/2059160

They're cheap, so get several of each and try them.