I'm a little puzzled about the smoke output from my Lionel 6-11127 Legacy Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4 #4436.
About six weeks ago, I replaced the batting in the smoke unit. I used Lionel's 8" fiberglass batting. Per one of Mike Reagan's old videos, I pulled the batting apart, then wadded it up. I also soaked it in smoke fluid before putting it into the smoke unit, being careful not to block the opening to the impeller chamber. Initially, the engine smoked like a house on fire. Soon, however, the smoke volume diminished, although it was still better than before I changed the batting. In the weeks since, the smoke volume has diminished further; it's not terrible, but it's probably no better than before I changed the batting. I've been mostly using Lionel Premium smoke fluid, and I've also tried JT's Mega-Steam; they seem to give about the same results. I use a needle-point applicator to get the smoke fluid into the batting, and I add fluid pretty liberally (too liberally, perhaps?) when the smoke volume seems to decrease.
It seems like the smoke unit has shown that it's capable of putting out pretty voluminous smoke. Any ideas why the improvement I saw at first hasn't lasted?
By the way, I'm setting the smoke unit to high and the labor to maximum. Another question I have is if, once the smoke unit is on high and the labor at maximum, will higher speed and/or application of the train brake further increase the voltage to the smoke unit?
Cheers!
Keith
