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This was posted by Lionel today.
Not that it isn't helpful, that video was posted on Lionels website back in September of 2012.
I'm guessing wherever you found it, Lionel wanted to "reinform" folks since smoke units are a constant issue.
Ricko...I received a Lionel Newsletter via email today with this being one of the items. Smoke units are always an issue. I wrote about it in the last LCCA Lion Roars. I put it here because the information is never old as people always seem to have problems and don't know where to start for solutions. Of course this video is on Lionel's website.
I'm frustrated with Lionel's smoke units. Have three Legacy engines/locomotives with bad units after not much running. The Mikado I bought new from Chicagoland Hobby and it quit after less than an hour. To Lionel's credit, they had it repaired and back in my hands in less than a week!
It worked fine for about a year of very light use and went out again. The other two are diesels (PA & U28) and both quit fairly soon after I received them 'previously owned' but almost new. No warranty.
On the other hand, none of our MTH engines have ever failed to smoke - in fact, a couple of them over the years even smoked from 'other than the stack' accompanied by a bad smell... 
Got it Bill.
IMO the bigger part of the problem is the onboard diagnostics of the smoke unit, that shuts the units down at the slightest resistance by the fan motor. Maybe too much of a good thing?
This is supposed to protect the boards from being damaged, but I don't recall alot of issues with boards burning up from being overloaded by the fan motor operation prior to the onboard diagnostics. I could be mistaken.
I have one of the earlier legacy berkshires from 2010 without the onboard diaganostics. The smoke unit fan completely stopped running in the first year of operation. I Lubed it once and it stopped again, lubed it a second time and it has run ever since.
These later smoke units have a habit of charring the filament in the chamber if you run it with too little fluid. I wrote about repairing this in the Roundhouse column of the S Gaugian in the January/February 2014 issue and again for the LCCA Lion Roars magazine 1 issue ago.
If your engines are out a warranty just take the locomotive shell off. If the fan is still running during a test and no smoke take off the top of the unit and see if it is charrred near the heating element. If so remove the charred part of the filament and repack. It should work.
c.sam posted:I'm frustrated with Lionel's smoke units. Have three Legacy engines/locomotives with bad units after not much running. The Mikado I bought new from Chicagoland Hobby and it quit after less than an hour. To Lionel's credit, they had it repaired and back in my hands in less than a week!
It worked fine for about a year of very light use and went out again. The other two are diesels (PA & U28) and both quit fairly soon after I received them 'previously owned' but almost new. No warranty.
On the other hand, none of our MTH engines have ever failed to smoke - in fact, a couple of them over the years even smoked from 'other than the stack' accompanied by a bad smell...
I've had the opposite problem - MTH Railking engines with smoke units that didn't live a year with light running, but my son't first year Lionel Polar Express smokes great. Equipment with heat generating components are going to have variances from run to run, resistor elements from different suppliers act in different ways (as witnessed by the recent warning post at the head of each forum) - things happen that slip by undetected at the factory sometimes.
