I'm looking at a locomotive which lists a Smoke Chest as one of it's features. Is this an older term for a fan driven smoke unit or is it something different? If it is not a fan driven unit can it usually be replaced with a fan unit without too much trouble? Pictures of the smoke chest would be great. Thanks everybody.
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I don't know about a "smoke chest", there is the smoke box, it's in front of the boiler where the color changes on many steamers. There is the "steam chest", that the chamber from which steam is distributed to a cylinder of a steam engine.
I'm sorry, the feature listed on the Lionel box is "Smoke Stack and Steam Chest" not "Smoke Chest". From the date on the manual it looks to be from around 1988.
Further to GRJ's comment, although I'm not certain but just from reading, my understanding is that the 'Steam Chest' is located at the front of the engine (ahead of the wheels) into which a rod extends; but I'd love to hear how an expert like @HotWater would describe it.
@David D posted:I'm sorry, the feature listed on the Lionel box is "Smoke Stack and Steam Chest" not "Smoke Chest". From the date on the manual it looks to be from around 1988.
So basically 2 holes around where the cylinders are that puff out smoke. Again, on puffer style piston smoke units, this was a tiny secondary smoke path from the main smoke that exits right around the cylinders in that general area and puffs out smoke on the sides of the engine.
What it sorta represents is cylinder cock steam used to prevent hydro-locking the cylinders during first movement on cold cylinders. Much more refined on specific models and even reciprocating with the movement on the high end models.
In reality, since it happens all the time- it represents a steam leak. Just a sloppy leaking engine if you are really into that level of detail.
And, some piston driven smoke units leak enough they blow out the bottom anyway- producing a similar effect.
Well doing a little research on my own, it does not appear to have anything to do with the smoke output through the Smoke stack but rather, I'm guess, a steam affect from the steam drive/piston cylinders.
@David D posted:I'm sorry, the feature listed on the Lionel box is "Smoke Stack and Steam Chest" not "Smoke Chest". From the date on the manual it looks to be from around 1988.
And of course Lionel could never be wrong in their terminology... 
Ok. Thanks for all the help. I'm guessing from what Barry described it will be be challenging to make this work, if at all, with a modern fan driven smoke unit.
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