Smoke fluid

The way to make this mist/fog/vapor appear darker is to increase the volume, or use it against a dark background, or adjust the lighting.

If JT Mega Steam is too light for you there may be an issue with you smoke unit or wicking material. Maybe not using enough fluid or as Rob stated, your smoke volume is set too low. As far as making smoke darker in color I don't believe that is possible.

Brad

Be mindful of the background too. Smoke against a dark background is a lot more impressive than smoke against a light background.

I think that Bart's Pneumatics in Lancaster PA has the best fluid that is thick and has the cedar scent like the original AF smoke. They claim it is the original AF formula.   I would assume it is OK for post war Lionel engines.    It is expensive.   I had a very little for a while for my post-war AF engines and it was very  impressive.

Another way to get more volume is to place a bridge rectifier or two at the motor, which drops the voltage to the motor,  which means more voltage goes to the smoke element to get the same speed. 

Dave

This thread rang our bell, so as an OGR advertiser, we will comment on the idea of black smoke. Black is the result of carbon which indicates something has burned to produce the color. That is not good for lungs, trains, and the environment. Model train smoke is not burned. It is vaporized. The internal heating element and smoke unit components produce what looks like smoke, but is actually a lite vapor. That is a big difference The viscosity of smoke fluid varies by manufacturer. Thicker fluid does not mean darker smoke. Food coloring, paint, and other products simply will not produce black smoke and will eventually clog and gum up the smoke units. Our viscosity is engineered to be such that it is safe to use with all smoke units from the new N Scale locos to the G Scale garden variety. We have found through testing that the MED setting on the controls works best to produce good smoke and not overheat the element and wicking. BTW, black smoke in real locomotives indicates that the coal is not burning correctly and is considered to be wasteful. The optimum operation of live steam requires the fireman to fire the engine so that the smoke from the stack is white in color. Thanks for the opportunity to chime in.

Jeb Kriigel/JT's Mega-Steam

I have read a couple times about smoke settings. Is the smoke setting adjusted only with the cab2? I assume it can’t be adjusted with the LC app. BTW, I’m very satisfied with JT’s smoke fluid.

Gene

@jeb posted:

BTW, black smoke in real locomotives indicates that the coal is not burning correctly and is considered to be wasteful. The optimum operation of live steam requires the fireman to fire the engine so that the smoke from the stack is white in color. Thanks for the opportunity to chime in.

Jeb Kriigel/JT's Mega-Steam

One of my favorite little facts about my smokey locomotives haha love your products by the way!

@jeb posted:

This thread rang our bell, so as an OGR advertiser, we will comment on the idea of black smoke. Black is the result of carbon which indicates something has burned to produce the color. That is not good for lungs, trains, and the environment. Model train smoke is not burned. It is vaporized. The internal heating element and smoke unit components produce what looks like smoke, but is actually a lite vapor. That is a big difference The viscosity of smoke fluid varies by manufacturer. Thicker fluid does not mean darker smoke. Food coloring, paint, and other products simply will not produce black smoke and will eventually clog and gum up the smoke units. Our viscosity is engineered to be such that it is safe to use with all smoke units from the new N Scale locos to the G Scale garden variety. We have found through testing that the MED setting on the controls works best to produce good smoke and not overheat the element and wicking. BTW, black smoke in real locomotives indicates that the coal is not burning correctly and is considered to be wasteful. The optimum operation of live steam requires the fireman to fire the engine so that the smoke from the stack is white in color. Thanks for the opportunity to chime in.

Jeb Kriigel/JT's Mega-Steam

I bought about $100 worth of JT Mega-Steam smoke fluid of various scents at the October 2022 York show, and am very pleased with the results. Arnold

After getting back into the hobby and using up the left over Lionel smoke pellets in my 2026 I looked for something else.  JT's Mega-Steam seemed to work well in the 2026 smoke stack.  I started buying newer engines and found that Mega-Steam worked well in all of them.

Then I saw a thread last year similar to this one in which a lot of forum members said that they liked MTH ProtoSmoke Fluid because it put out copious amounts of smoke for a longer sustained period.  I bought some and now it is my favorite.

John

I have several scents from JT and have been pleased with all of them. So learning here from Jeb that it's "vapor" and not "smoke" must explain why the voluminous clouds I love to crank out have never set off the smoke detectors!!

@Don poitras posted:

I use JT's MEGA SMOKE fluid,which works very well,but I find it's too light to see unless you are up close to the train.Is there any product on the market that is darker in color or would there be a homeade recipe I could use to make it darker and more visable?Thanks.

Looks dark enough for me, I don't know there's any easy way to make it more dense.  As others have said, more smoke volume is the key to visibility.

I've been a Mega-Steam smoke fluid user for 20 years now. I feel it's the best smoke fluid available. Between the assortment of scents, to the ease of availability and right down to the awesome customer service Jeb provides, it is a great product.

I store my stash in the medicine cabinet of my train room bathroom. I still have a couple of the original glass bottle versions.

@NJCJOE which Christmas/holiday scent do you like the best? I'm looking for one for my first under-the-tree layout in my own house this year.

I prefer JT's Mega Steam. Never had an issue with it, love the scents and easy to acquire these days! Great product in my opinion.

@BillYo414 posted:

@NJCJOE which Christmas/holiday scent do you like the best? I'm looking for one for my first under-the-tree layout in my own house this year.

My favorite Christmas scent is the Bayberry Holiday. Christmas Pine and Maple Sugar are also high on my list of favorites.

Thanks for the heads up! @NJCJOE

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Looks dark enough for me, I don't know there's any easy way to make it more dense.  As others have said, more smoke volume is the key to visibility.

It also help a lot that the train goes slow, so the "wind" does not disperse it quickly.  My PW locos travel a little faster and make the vapor disappear much more quickly.

so to get more smoke, just load up the consist to drag the speed down and voltage up for my postwar units.

Wow,lots of smoke👍What is required to turn the smoke volume up?A special transformer or something on the loco?

@Don poitras posted:

Wow,lots of smoke👍What is required to turn the smoke volume up?A special transformer or something on the loco?

Please give us the manufacture and item number of the locomotive you are trying to increase the volume of smoke output on. The suggestions on how to increase smoke output depend on what model you are using.

Lionel legacy Maine Central 2-8--0  sku#2231110.All I have to run it is the cw80 transformer and a universal remote,which I can't get to work either.I'm new to this ...sorry for  the crazy questions.

@TrainCzar posted:

It also help a lot that the train goes slow, so the "wind" does not disperse it quickly.  My PW locos travel a little faster and make the vapor disappear much more quickly.

so to get more smoke, just load up the consist to drag the speed down and voltage up for my postwar units.

Well, PW locomotives with the mechanical smoke units will never smoke like fan driven smoke, that's probably the main issue.

@Don poitras posted:

Wow,lots of smoke👍What is required to turn the smoke volume up?A special transformer or something on the loco?

No real magic, tune the smoke unit, and run with the standard Legacy electronics.

@Don poitras posted:

Lionel legacy Maine Central 2-8--0  sku#2231110.All I have to run it is the cw80 transformer and a universal remote,which I can't get to work either.I'm new to this ...sorry for  the crazy questions.

Ah ok. You can't adjust the smoke volume between LOW/MED/HI with a transformer or the universal remote, you need a TMCC or Legacy system to do that. However you can make sure you use the correct amount of smoke fluid. The first fill you do/after the locomotive has sat for several months should be between 30-40 drops, then refills should be around 20 drops. After filling be sure to blow down the stack to remove any air bubbles that could impede air flow and block the smoke from coming out.

@Don poitras posted:

Lionel legacy Maine Central 2-8--0  sku#2231110.All I have to run it is the cw80 transformer and a universal remote,which I can't get to work either.I'm new to this ...sorry for  the crazy questions.

I believe that Lionel runs the Legacy stuff in conventional mode with medium smoke volume.  For maximum smoke, try it on a TMCC or Legacy command system, then you can set the smoke to maximum and see how it functions.

Here's a couple of videos of a similar vintage locomotive with the same electronics running with Legacy command.

The recent Legacy models with bluetooth like yours should be defaulted to high smoke volume. So far mine have been. I use bluetooth and the Lionel app for my 2 Legacy engines. My command system is MTH DCS and haven't added Legacy to it. If you bought yours used it may have been changed to a lower smoke volume using a Legacy remote by the previous owner which may not default back to high volume using the app without access to a Legacy system. Not sure. I don't know much about the universal remotes. Since your model has BT run it using the free app on your phone. You may find it having much higher smoke volume if it defaults to high like mine do. Even my LC + and LC + 2.0 models are defaulted to high smoke with the app.

Brad