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Was testing out a rather prolific Lionel steamer and didn't realize for a few minutes that it was not smoking. I blew down the stack and out poured a big puff of smoke from out of the stack and the openings under the boiler. Does this mean the inside of the boiler and electronics have been coated in a film of smoke fluid? If so, will it eventually evaporate or will I need to open it up and dry it out?

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Smoke Fluid is essentially oil.  It will dry, but not quickly.  That said, the fact that you got smoke out of places there shouldn't be smoke doesn't necessarily mean that smoke fluid was anywhere other than inside the unit, only that you had a big thick pocket of smoke trapped under that fluid bubble.  If you're not someone who is very comfortable disassembling your engines, you could do a test by running a Q-tip into the openings where the smoke came out from.  If it comes out greasy you may want to pop the shell off. 

 

What model of loco is it, btw?  Some of the newer ones are astoundingly simple to disassemble. 

If left alone it will likely gum up.  I have a MTH 2-8-0 that happened to, it didn't cause any problems (caught in time?).

 

I've stopped using smoke and will remove all smoke units from my engines whenever I have to take one apart for some reason.  With as many electronic nightmares as we seem to have, adding any kind of fluid into the equation seems like something not to do.

Bob, if any of those removed smoke units are MTH fan driven units you're thinking of selling then send me an email. My email is in my profile.
Originally Posted by Bob Delbridge:

If left alone it will likely gum up.  I have a MTH 2-8-0 that happened to, it didn't cause any problems (caught in time?).

 

I've stopped using smoke and will remove all smoke units from my engines whenever I have to take one apart for some reason.  With as many electronic nightmares as we seem to have, adding any kind of fluid into the equation seems like something not to do.

 

Nick;

As the guys said, likely not a problem.

If you see the ominous signs of smoke fluid on the lower frame, drivers, track, etc. then you could have a problem and you should pop the boiler off and clean it ups. A rag with rubbing alcohol works well.

If you had a stack vapor lock and blowing down it cleared it, you should be good to go.

Likely the air surge pushed some smoke back out through the fan intake and that then came out of the lower boiler openings. No worries.

 

Rod

This is Lionel's 2003 PRR M1a, and I had actually just gotten done with a complete dis-assembly and rewiring to remove the previous owner's aftermarket upgrades. Using an LED flashlight and peering through the underside I didn't see any obvious wetness and the Q-tip test came back dry, so I guess we dodged the bullet there. Thanks guys 

 

As a side note, I no longer use my smoke units either due to the messiness involved. However, I still like to make sure they work on the engines I buy and once the initial load is spent the units get switched off.

A little smoke fluid residue  from time to time is the "nature of the beast". As long as you don't have pools of fluid standing on your boards you should be fine.

 

These locomotive were designed with smoke fluid use in mind, if the slightest fog of smoke or thin fluid residue would damage the electronics than what would be the point.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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