Should I Convert 671 Steam Turbine Smoke Unit or Not?

I would leave it original.

agreed, plenty of Turbines out there, pick up another one if you want a smoker. One with the original bulb set up would be rare I would think.

Scott K,

I would leave it alone. I'm sure that there will be others. My grandfather had many tid-bits of wisdom. One of my favorites was: "Real Locomotives Have A Reason To Smoke, Toy Locomotives Have None!".

The 671S smoke unit conversion kit was still listed as late as 1968 or 1969 in the factory parts list.
However finding an intact kit is rather difficult, and they are expensive.

Obtaining the individual parts (if so desired) to do the conversion should not be difficult. They made a lot of turbines, so there are plenty of parts out there if you are willing to use recycled parts. In my estimation, the most difficult part to find would be the conversion smoke lever.

All that written, I would not covert a smoke bulb engine. The smoke bulb is part of what makes it unique.

Original smoke bulbs are not difficult to find.

Good reproduction bulbs are available too.

Please, by all means leave that old 671 in its original condition.  As C W Burfle said that smoke bulb unit is what makes that locomotive so unique and its always nice to have a unit like that which provides another neat example of the technological progression in the making of toy trains.  I have a couple of them and I think they are great.

One more thought: a 671S would have the earliest style smoke unit, which were prone to  burn out.

There were changes made to the element of the small pot (early) smoke  units to address the issue. Finally they changed to the large pot (later) smoke unit.

IMHO, the ceramic form in the large pot units allowed them to use a longer piece of heavier gauge wire.

A lot of those smoke units became available when Madison Hardware was liquidated.

I also have a smoke bulb turbine, but mine's a 2020. I took mine and placed a wad of Tiki torch wicking above the bulb, and just put smoke fluid in it. Works fine, but doesn't last the longest.

Here's a (very poor) video of it:

The smoke is hard to see in the video unless the engine is directly below it. It really does smoke pretty good; it just doesn't last as long between refills (maybe 5 to 10 minutes IIRC) Perhaps using a different amount of wicking or placing it a bit different could improve the output or the duration.

Hope this helps,

J White

Scott K, I have this engine and I placed wick material on top of the bulb and use liquid smoke. Works pretty good and I don't have to look at light shining on the ceiling through the stack, Vic.

Thanks for all of the responses. You have convinced me not to convert this locomotive. Instead, I went ahead and purchased a Lionel T-1 4-8-4 Chessie Steam Special locomotive (18011). Even though it's not a post war unit, it makes a great addition to my set and complements the 671 nicely.

If you are wondering, I got my 1946 2020 turbine smoking pretty well with the original smoke bulb. All I had to do was add some insulation (I used cuttings from an old sock but fiberglass insulation would be better) to the smoke "divot" on the bulb to hold the smoke fluid. It works very well! 

leave it original if you can is my suggestion 

Just a similar set up, I had a smoke bulb in a tin Marx CV. With a shroud from headlight hole to stack. Between the bulb and shroud it had normal wicking material.

Fluid was used. It had no pellet residue.

Fill the divit, wait. Fill again, wait. Fill, run, stop. Fill, run stop. Fill when it drops off "A little", repeat etc. 

Each fill was strong longer till the next stop.

It smoked very well, time was extended, but still not up to par with reservoirs.  

 The train lives, but the unpainted shroud died of rust. The bulb shattered one day, element still lit.

The need for a screw based, side dimple bulb is the only reason I didn't make a new shroud.

The unique bulb mount on the frame under the stack remains. 

Gee, I'd like to see that. A smoking Marx CV! Is it on another post or could you post some pictures of it here? 

This modification took very little to do but drastically improved the smoke output. I like smoke, and lots of it. The smoke bulb turbine actually smokes very well now. 

As I said in other posts, it's only original once. Get a beater to modify.

I have an original 671 Turbine that I converted from smoke bulb to regular smoke unit several years ago.  It was very easy to do, and in about ten minutes I can convert it back to the original smoke bulb assembly with just a small screw driver and soldering iron.

I took the smoke bulb housing out and left the flapper alone.  I then put in a regular pellet style smoke unit that I could screw to the mount tab the bulb housing mounted to.  The smoke unit piston just sits on the flapper and will not jam up, and has a nice clinking sound when running.

I then took one of these light bulbs from Lionel and replaced the original light lens with this actual bulb.  The bulb diameter is about the same as the original light lens.

Works great and I didn't make any permanent mods to the locomotive.

Camera is "down". The frame mounted bulb base, up high and has a lock on type clip for the "hot wire" to the base(reverse of a normal bulb that is wired common to base) The center bulb tip contact is riveted to a vertical plate, sandwiched in the frame). That is all that is left that is different, other than a visor on the headlight instead of the trim ring. The visor version does appear now & then. I see more like that in Canada, which is where the summer homes were when Grandma was young(and rich).  I did create a diagram of the shroud & bulb from memory in MS-paint a year or two ago........

Yep, I still have it. One of the first times I used paint in years too.

Edit: search Adriatic, Marx, shroud and you can see I post about it every now and then in hopes somebody else has seen this before.

Edit#2 the tabs on top and hole are incorrect and should be swapped position wise.

Oh, I see. Basically, it is a small smoke bulb in a Marx. I wonder now, would this work with a Canadian Pacific? Where can one find the bulbs? 

Where to find a bulb? Good question. I would have rebuilt the shroud from scratch if I found one. I looked for years(since "87") but I've never even found a reference to it.

It wasn't really small. About the size of a normal accessory bulb in dia. Maybe a bit fatter. It was longer though. About the size of a whole peanut shell(maybe a "triple peanut") and had a rounded, bulbous tip.

It really did look like a long peanut that had growth stunted, especially on the base end.