Replacing Smoke Unit in K-line Steam

I could use some of this info too, as I have two K-line steam engines that may need attention in the future.

Hi Don, replace it with an MTH unit, or what fluid are you using? I'm selling Megasteam, and have been trying the NADA (no scent) product at the club in all manner of locos including a Kline steamer of mine and it smokes well. Might be worth trying first. There is also a chap here on the forum, Bill, can't at the moment remember his last name, who reworks Lionel smoke units and they work very well too. I got some from him to refit in various locos, especially my Williams  Seuthe smoke that are rubbish.

Hi Don, Try this site   www.jdslimitedproductions.com 

They upgraded my sons Polar Express engine and did a great job for me. It smokes very well with a fan driven unit. I don't know if they sell the units only you will have to ask.

Good Luck.

I have converted a couple of K-Line Mikados over to PS-2. The MTH smoke units seem to fit well, and the result is awsome smoke.

One thing that is worth doing is drilling the inner stack hole out to 13/64" or 7/32" diameter. This slows the exit velocity of the smoke and makes it a lot more realistic.

You could also swap in an MTH smoke unit with the original TMCC electronics, but getting the fan to chuff smoke in time with the drivers will be a challenge.

There have been a couple of posts on ways to do this recently.

Rod

Hi Tod, off the top of my head I paid about $149.00. But I had a number of things done other then the smoke unit up grade. I got  a fire men and engineer with cab lighting and an LED in the engine front. They also had to swap the Lionel e-unit with a smaller one to make room for the smoke unit assembly.

The new unit needed a special driver card because the lionel unit did not deliver enough voltage to volitilize the fluid. I found this out on my work bench before I even called JDS. That was the reason why it never smoked well, it never went over seven or eight volts to the smoker unless you had the engine running at full tilt. 

They where very fast accept we had to wait for the special 4 amp e-unit to come in, they where on back order from the manufacture.  Even at that I had my engine back in three weeks and I got all my old part also.

When I figured out the cost of the parts and the time it would take me to get around to doing it I felt like it was a good call. Hey, I got a DCS up grade kit that has been sitting on the shelf for almost four years.  It may be the next thing I send them.

In any case I'm very happy with the service and they have some cool stuff that would never fit in my O-27 Polar Express, like an engineer that  will wave to you. There is alot more then smoke on their web site.

If  you run a search on Polar Express you should be able to find the video I posted around February of it running on a test track my son set up.

Bachman Williams sells their smoke unit assembly for $8.00 but I don't know if they can be adapted. They need an 8V regulated power supply to run in conjunction with. If your control board has 8VDC regulated power the Williams unit might work. Anyone here have luck with the Williams smoke unit? How does it blow smoke? Is it good for diesel or steam loco? Thinking of adding one to a diesel.

What Kline engine do you have that you want to convert? I have installed turbo smoke units in my two Kline Berks.  Due to the forward mounted motor I had to have the turbo smoke unit cut in half and have both halves wired together.  There was no room up front to do this with the flywheel in the way.  with the control part of the smoke unit mounted in the back the wires glued to the roof of the engine with the rest of the smoke unit up front.  

I do have a Kline Mike but don't think there's room even with a split smoke unit.

I forgot to mention that some of the K-Line engines used the same smoke unit that Lionel use in the Polar Express. I had a old K-Line O-4-0 collector club switcher that got "fryed". It smoke like **** for about three seconds.

I opened her up to see if I could swop the smoke generator out with the Polar Express unit and it was the same part. It even had the same cam driven puffing system.

There is not alot of real estate in the PE engine and I fear that Todd's  Harry Potter piece is even tighter. 

Mario, email me if you'd consider parting with that DCS upgrade kit - I'm looking for one to convert a K-Line K4s Torpedo and the last one I ordered took nearly a year to ship.

I don't think this is the correct link.

Doug

Do you have a part number for this unit?  Are you talking about a fan driven smoke unit for $8?

Hi Doug, I just clicked on the link I posted that shows in your attachment and I went right to the JDS site. I guess this is one of those internet mysteries we all come to know and love. Try this phone number if you can't locate their site, (570) 772-9815.

As for doing a search for my post with the up graded Polar Express engine do an OGR search on (JDS PE).

gg1man, if going direct to the JDS site is incorrect, then what site are we attempting to locate.  It seems like everything on the JDS site relates to MTH stuff.

TEX

Steve

Gary, I have 3 Berkshires, 2 Mikados, 2 Pacific and a 0-6-0switcher so it's going to be a big job. Don

Aren't the K-Line units simple mechanical puffers? If you replace it with a fan unit do you expect it to puff or simply send out a steady stream of smoke? Additional switches and circuitry may be needed. Another option would be to replace the resistor and batting like Lionel service does to improve smoke output.

Pete

Adding newresistors to a smoke unit canhelp a lot check out my 0-8-0 with a 27 ohm resistor and mega steam 

It depends on the K-Line locomotive you're talking about.  I have their CNJ Tank Engine, and it has a fan driven smoke unit.  It also has the fan synchronized with the RailSounds chuff to puff.

Some of my engines seem to be synchronized but just put out small bits of smoke. Don

Hi Steve, if you read my above post you will see that we are talking about a lionel engine. I also went on to say that my K-Line engine had the same smoke unit in it. My thought being that if it's good for one it should be OK for the other.

Of course there are always space limitations to consider in any engine up-grade.

The PE I spoke of above also has a cam driven smoke unit and JDS added a board to control the smoke. You will have to talk to them about details of how it works.

As for the JDS site only being for MTH equipment I don't see that at all. It's true they only talk about DCS up-grades but I have a Lionel engine with their products in it.

Do an OGR search for "jds PE" it brought me right to the post I made with pictures and a short video of the product in my 27 Polar Express engine.

Steve, I get the impression there will not be a single solution for all those engines. I have an 0-6-0 (B6) and there is very little extra room in there. Quantity of smoke is largely a function of the smoke resistor. Getting it synchronized with the chuff is the other problem. Pretty easy to increase the quantity of smoke. Not so easy to get in synchronized, especially if you want 4 chuffs.

Pete

Just recently, I saw someone here install a Lionel smoke unit in a Williams 671. I believe it only cost about $30.00. Anyone remember seeing the video?

You can see the video here, http://www.mttponline.com/

Bill