Smoking caboose?Seriously?

I've got a couple of them and fortunately enough have never had any problems. (So far)

I make sure all mine are turned off. Had one get really hot and noticed it before it started to melt the sides of the car. Nice for a photo shoot, otherwise make sure they are off.

Prefer just a scale stack. Guests at a friends who turns them on seem to notice fluid spills on the roof rather than any visible smoke. Lower price would be well worth the loss of the smoke unit.

What REALLY needs to be done is make the lighting intensity at realistic levels. The build engines to run at 18 volts and the caboose is near melting at 12 volts...

In my opinion, I wish the manufacturers would concentrate of proper illuminated rear marker lamps and forget the smoke units. Those very expensive, and prototypically accurate, UP CA-4 cabooses that Lionel brought out some years ago, had NO rear marker lamps, yet came with a smoke unit! Go figure.

There are two smoking cabooses in my collection - both by K-line. They always seem to draw more attention from visitors than the smoking locomotives. 

Fortunately, neither of my smoking cabooses have ever had any issues.

Personally, I never use caboose smoke units.  I could live without them, especially if it lowers the cost.

Andy

I see smoke units working far better with a die cast caboose than plastic, the paint might suffer but not the body.

Always found it odd light up cabooses are popular, yet would be rather hard to see out of at night if lit up, the low glow of a fire box would be more acceptable.

Then I need to fix mine. It probably avoided the over heating issue from having a huge hole in the under carriage for the light mount, and the wires breaking insured it.

Now I've only had mine for two days, but I love it!

I never use the smoke units on cabooses. I might use one on a one-time basis for visitors to the layout, but it's way too much hassle for a long operating session at home or (especially) in a club situation where you have a lot of distractions. Let one go dry and you've got overheating and potentially a melted roof. Not worth it. I have one brass caboose that came with a Seuthe smoke unit and no off switch. Rather than go to the trouble of installing a switch, I just disconnected it. 

Some of the K-Line cabooses have a switch on the bottom for conventional vs. command operation. The command position reduces the voltage to the smoke unit so it doesn't overheat on constant 18v. I don't know how effective it is since I leave the smoke off. 

Not worth the extra cost. I just shut it off anyway. 

I have put the MTH HO fan driven smoke unit in a couple of these.  It doesn't get hot enough to melt anything, and with a variable power supply allows you to adjust the smoke volume with a simple screw adjustment.  I mount the supply so you can reach the adjustment screw from a hole in the bottom.  The smoke volume can be enough to easily see underway if that's your taste.

The next mod will be to have it TMCC controlled so you can have smoke on command.

Next one I do I'll try to remember to take pictures.

Pulled mine out of the 3 cabooses I have, (after noticing body getting soft). Going to use smoke units for building chimneys.

I have one smoking caboose.  I bought it because I liked it, and the price was reasonable.  The dealer pointed out to me that it had a smoke unit, which didn't matter to me.  I tried it out once, then turned it off and have not turned it on again.  I can only run any smoke units on my picnic table on the patio anyway, because they all set off my smoke detectors.

Now, if I ever ran it at a show like Thomas abbrail suggested, I would probably turn it on.  I'm sure it would draw a lot of favorable attention.

I don't smoke.

Beat me to it! Maybe we need cigar scented smoke fluid....

In general I've really cut back on using smoke in general. Constantly having to tend to the car/engine, plus the overall mess on the unit and the track. It was a brief session of running Coal Scented smoke fluid that got the trains banned from under the Christmas Tree.

Gilly

I hope you write a how-to article and provide part numbers as I would love to do this with all of mine.

I'd rather have a caboose smoking than a diesel engine.

Definitely plan on using it in a new one after I install power regulation for command. Having a small but noticeable amount of smoke emitted, especially while stopped, is a plus to me.

I like John's idea of a fan unit even more.

Dave

for stuff like the older smoking caboose models, you can put a switch with a diode for command operation.  They were designed for conventional, and 18 volts is just too much heat.  That will reduce the heat to a manageable level.  Also, a stick-on foil or insulation on the shell next to the smoke unit will help avoid excessive heat melting the plastic.

I don't see the point of all the smoking rolling stock. Isn't there a smoking tank car too?

Instead of a smoking caboose, perhaps a Streets van with smoke pouring out the windows would be better!

But then Mega-Steam would need to come out with a special scented smoke fluid....

I love the look of a smoking caboose on a slow pass.  I have a good number of them but can't get some to work.  I've never tuned up a caboose smoke unit as I don't like to mess with taking cabeese apart.  I keep my K-Lines off due to the melting issue.  But watching the train slowly roll down the track and out of sight with the smoke gently wafting is a real treat.

Stack 

How's about smoke billowing out of a tail pipe? 

Rusty

I have several and never use the smoke either.  I am worried about too much heat on the bodies.

Art

I have a Lionel caboose that smoked for a while, but it stopped and hasn't worked since.

Does the Lionel smoking hot box car generate excessive heat?

Not that I've noticed.  We've run one pretty extensively at shows, and I don't see any evidence of heat damaging anything.  FWIW, that's a fan driven smoke unit in the hot box reefer.

I don't see the point of some things either, but I do so love to see smoke.   Oh, and I do have the MTH smoking tankcar, pretty tricky.

To quote my D.I. in Basic:  "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."  

I think the idea behind the smoking tank car is condensation from a very cold load, such as liquid nitrogen. Same concept as the smoke unit that billows out smoke from the Coors fantasy reefer train.

The exception would be the "smoking hot" Tabasco sauce tank car. 

And if you use JT Megasteam "Bacon Frying" or "Coffee" scented smoke fluid at a show, it might be the only thing remembered by a significant other who was "dragged along".  If visitors can peer through a window and see the conductor standing over the stove, I'd think that would be the clincher!

I did not know they have Bacon smoke fluid.  I am getting some right now...

Just sold mind except for a post-war Lionel 6557 which is a shelf queen

I have the MTH smoking hot chocolate tank car. I put it with my Polar Express. They have to get hot chocolate from somewhere.  Kids love it, especially when using the hot chocolate flavored smoke from JTs.  Should probably get a brown plastic tube to run from the tank car to the PE coach!

 I have 2 K-Line smoking cabooses, and after seeing the roof start to melt on one I turned them both off as I could never see any smoke come from them anyway.

I also have 2 K-Line smoking cabooses.  After hearing stories, I never turned on the smoke.

I had a Breakdown B that after triggering the breakdown, with gobs of smoke pouring out, the roof started to melt.  I sent it back to Lionel and they used stick on foil.

I have two smoking cabooses. Thanks to Gunrunner John, One caboose has fan driven HO smoke unit that has been working fantastic! I really like them.

What's the point, then?

Seriously!

Bruce