Any tricks to make the Smoking Caboose really puff out some smoke? Using a Lionel Smoke right now.
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Not really. You really don’t want it to puff like a locomotive. I drilled a hole in the bottom to, at least, allow air to move up through it. That was only a marginal improvement. My thought would me a small, fan driven, smoke unit with the fan motor speed dialed down to a gentle breeze and a resistor to barely make smoke.
Shut the smoke unit off and forget about it. The unit will wind up melting down and take half the caboose with it. Nick
I've upgraded several of these cabooses with the MTH HO fan driven smoke unit. It's small and you can tune the output to put out nice smoke for an extended period. IMO, the caboose shouldn't be smoking like an engine, just a nice stream of smoke. Another bonus is the fan driven smoke unit doesn't get hot enough to melt the sides of your caboose!
I just mate the smoke output of the smoke unit to the existing stack. I use a small buck power module to power the smoke element, it requires around 5-6 volts for the heater, depending on the smoke volume you want. The tiny fan motor runs on 2-3 VDC, I just use a resistor to drop the heater voltage for proper fan speed.
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Living in the more southern for most of my life, I can't ever recall seeing smoke coming out of a caboose, so for me I don't run it on my smoking caboose. I also find fully lit cabooses unrealistic.
rockstars1989 posted:Shut the smoke unit off and forget about it. The unit will wind up melting down and take half the caboose with it. Nick
Maybe with some cabeeese, particularly old K-Line ones, but not them all. But, Alabama Joe, if you want smoke (& I would, too) the main thing to keep in mind is keeping enough fluid in it....or flip the smoke switch off. Dan's idea of drilling a hole in the bottom of the caboose, near, but not interfering with the smoke element, is a good first step.
TexasSP posted:Living in the more southern for most of my life, I can't ever recall seeing smoke coming out of a caboose, so for me I don't run it on my smoking caboose. I also find fully lit cabooses unrealistic.
Agreed. At night there would be at most one lamp lit and certainly the cupola was dark so crewmen could see the train ahead.
Also, Caboose heating stoves were either coal or kerosene fired. Kerosene stoves don't smoke unless faulty and coal only smokes heavily when adding coal. Some roads used Anthracite that doesn't smoke at all.
RadioRon posted:rockstars1989 posted:Shut the smoke unit off and forget about it. The unit will wind up melting down and take half the caboose with it. Nick
Maybe with some cabeeese, particularly old K-Line ones, but not them all. But, Alabama Joe, if you want smoke (& I would, too) the main thing to keep in mind is keeping enough fluid in it....or flip the smoke switch off. Dan's idea of drilling a hole in the bottom of the caboose, near, but not interfering with the smoke element, is a good first step.
I have one of the old K-Line's and it smokes a lot ! I have to watch because it gets real hot quick. I would not have bought it if I read these forums because the last thing you want is a caboose melt.
Appreciate the input. Thanks
TexasSP posted:I can't ever recall seeing smoke coming out of a caboose, so for me I don't run it on my smoking caboose. I also find fully lit cabooses unrealistic.
So is three-rail track, but we accept that! These are toys. Enjoy!
rpmcobra posted:
That’s more like it. KLine? Thanks for sharing
RadioRon posted:TexasSP posted:I can't ever recall seeing smoke coming out of a caboose, so for me I don't run it on my smoking caboose. I also find fully lit cabooses unrealistic.
So is three-rail track, but we accept that! These are toys. Enjoy!
This goes without saying, and why assume someone isn't enjoying things because they look at it differently than you do? People consider different things when modeling and what matters to them or not, doesn't mean someone isn't enjoying it. I find it silly that people like to constantly talk about 3 rail being unrealistic when it's a given when running 3 rail O. It also has nothing to do with a discussion on smoking cabooses.
A caboose should only have a trickle of smoke like a chimney on your house. There's too much risk of melting the thing if you don't do it right.
I always disliked the "smoking caboose" models, as they tended to make almost as much of a mess as "smoking locomotives". Then there was that absolutely BEAUTIFUL Lionel scale model of the Union Pacific steam era CA-4 caboose, which had a smoke unit but no illuminated marker lights! What were they thinking?
Even though I lived in my early youth in Illinois and it has winters, cold. I remember many times when the Milwaukee Road engine would come early in the mornings to pick up the Hogs, sheep, and cattle that the farmers including my dad had sold and delivered them to the pick-up pens. Many times we would be invited into the caboose for coffee or hot chocolate, and yes the chimney was smoking, fueled with coal. There would be smoke coming out come summer or winter months. Besides heating, the crew cooked their meals and of course, there was always a pot on.
As some have said, the smoke wasn't like a locomotive, rather a wisp, but it smoked. I have a smoker, and with resistors got the voltage down to were the draw doesn't heat up enough to melt the sides, and I've had it smoking for over 6 years now.
I believe there actually was one Lionel smoking caboose car that actually had a built in flapper mechanism to circulate the air.
Regardless, there is a lot to find fault with in the train toy items of years past or present. A man throwing shoulder height milk cans out, the rotating searchlight, water bubbling up a tube into a water tower, a giraffe bobbing under a pole with telltales on it, the cop and hobo car, hydraulic maint car, aquarium car, helicopter boxcar, rocket launching boxcar, rocket launching flat car, rocket launching engine, target balloon car, explosive boxcar, or the barrel ramp car.
As well as hearing the same 6 or 7 crew talk messages over and over.
So I don't have a problem with any amount of smoke coming out of a caboose. It is entertaining to me.
Hot Water posted:I always disliked the "smoking caboose" models, as they tended to make almost as much of a mess as "smoking locomotives". Then there was that absolutely BEAUTIFUL Lionel scale model of the Union Pacific steam era CA-4 caboose, which had a smoke unit but no illuminated marker lights! What were they thinking?
I'd agree with this assessment. Spending time fiddling with smoke fluid with a caboose, constantly worrying about having to fill it, risking messing up the finish of the paint, risk of burning out the smoke unit because it ran out of fluid, or having it overheat and do damage, all to see a barely perceptable whiff of smoke coming out -- the cost/benefit analysis has benefit coming up far short. Perhaps fun occasionally with a beater caboose to fool around with, but no way with new $90-$100+ cabooses these days. Just my opinion.
And leaving out marker lights on those CA-4 scale cabooses (or any caboose) was inexcusable.
While I have a few smoking cabooses, I leave the switch OFF. One less thing to mess with. Ditto with the smoking diesels. Who wants an engine with a blown turbocharger?
I bought a K-Line Rock Island caboose at a train show several months ago. I didn't even realize it was a smoking caboose until I got it home and out of the box.
What a bunch of fun! It waffs out smoke fairly decently while running. I get a kick out of running it. No, it doesn't blow smoke out like the steamers do, but it simply comes out much more naturally, like you would imagine a pot-bellied stove or wood-burning stove might put out. I now wish some of my other cabeeses would smoke like this one! 
The newest smoking cabooses from Lionel have regulated electronics in them. The smoke is nice and wispy.
rockstars1989 posted:Shut the smoke unit off and forget about it. The unit will wind up melting down and take half the caboose with it. Nick
Agreed. last modern Lionel smoking caboose I tried started popping and sizzling spitting fluid all over the inside of the car.
When I opened the caboose to clean up the mess, I saw about the cheapest sorriest excuse for a smoke unit ever.
A resistor with a sleeve over it sitting in a plastic bowl with no wicking of any kind.
After the O.P. shuts it off he should contact Lionel for a replacement "scale" stack and that nice Pennsy caboose will look even better.
I can only recall ever seeing smoke coming from the caboose.A few times it was after school on the school bus.In the fall it was really cold that day.We had to wait for a hopper train.One of the kids said"GOOD GOD WHEN DID THEY START RUNNING SUCH LONG TRAINS!!"It was pretty long alright.At the end was a red caboose L&N FAMILY LINES it had smoke coming out of its stack.And it looked really small behind those hopper cars.And I never seen a caboose with all its lights on.Maybe one or two at the most.
Gilly@N&W posted:While I have a few smoking cabooses, I leave the switch OFF. One less thing to mess with. Ditto with the smoking diesels. Who wants an engine with a blown turbocharger?
Surly you have seen big GE smoking like a volcano.I have seen a few EMD smoking but pulling a very longer than normal train.
seaboardm2 posted:Gilly@N&W posted:While I have a few smoking cabooses, I leave the switch OFF. One less thing to mess with. Ditto with the smoking diesels. Who wants an engine with a blown turbocharger?
Surly you have seen big GE smoking like a volcano.I have seen a few EMD smoking but pulling a very longer than normal train.
I’ve run some GE’s that were idling for a while, with flame out of the stack... pretty cool at night....
I have a k-line virginian caboose that has a switch in it to regulate the incoming voltage depending on whether you have command or conventional power. One day after setting the switch to "command" the electronics gave out and the roof and wall of the caboose melted. From then on I don't run smoke in any car or engine. Too much of a risk in melting $400 plus locos or cars.
Alabama Joe posted:Any tricks to make the Smoking Caboose really puff out some smoke?
Above photo from this earlier OGR thread on smoking caboose. Taking your question at face-value, and as suggested by GRJ, I'd say a fan-driven unit is the answer. There have been several earlier OGR threads on this. If you are mucking around with electronics anyway, consider a timer module (~$3 on eBay, free shipping from Asia) to cycle the smoke unit on and off - say 1 minute on, 5 minutes off, or whatever. This would reduce heat build-up and make it more interesting.
Scented smoke fluid - e.g., Bacon & Eggs, Hot Chocolate, Coffee - can give the illusion that there's a conductor alive and well back there! 
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I like the bacon & eggs scent, that's a good idea. The good thing about the fan driven smoke unit is there's much less possibility of it overheating and melting the sides of the caboose. I also don't put it right next to the side, even if I have to angle the stack, just a little extra damage insurance.
IIRC, one of the earlier threads shows how a $1 thermal-cutoff-switch could be attached to the smoke unit. When it gets too hot, power cuts off. When it cools down - probably taking several minutes - it starts up again. Lather, rinse, repeat. So you get both thermal protection and cycling behavior. Here's a photo of these simple 2-wire devices I recently posted for a discussion on protecting against an overheating solenoid in a crossing-gate mechanism. You choose the temperature where you want it to cut off.
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I bought a smoking caboose once that had gotten hot on one side but not very noticeable. Think I paid $10 or 15 for it. I only switch it on for running.
So, in the spirit of paranoia, I lined the walls and floor of the caboose with sheet copper from an old processor heatsink. Just in case I forget to turn the switch off.
breezinup posted:Hot Water posted:Perhaps fun occasionally with a beater caboose to fool around with, but no way with new $90-$100+ cabooses these days. Just my opinion.
And leaving out marker lights on those CA-4 scale cabooses (or any caboose) was inexcusable.
MTH, Lionel, Atlas, etc. have essentially stopped offering cabooses with smoke units. I guess they saw it as an area to lower production costs... while still charging us "90-$100 cabooses.
@rockstars1989 posted:Shut the smoke unit off and forget about it. The unit will wind up melting down and take half the caboose with it. Nick
I have had two of mine now for 2-3 years and never had a problem of a meltdown.. mine puffs smoke like a real potbelly stove was installed in there. If you do it right no worries.
@stan2004 posted:IIRC, one of the earlier threads shows how a $1 thermal-cutoff-switch could be attached to the smoke unit. When it gets too hot, power cuts off. When it cools down - probably taking several minutes - it starts up again. Lather, rinse, repeat. So you get both thermal protection and cycling behavior. Here's a photo of these simple 2-wire devices I recently posted for a discussion on protecting against an overheating solenoid in a crossing-gate mechanism. You choose the temperature where you want it to cut off.
I definitely want to order some of these Stan.
Which temperatures would you recommend to stock?
Thanks,
John
@cjack posted:The newest smoking cabooses from Lionel have regulated electronics in them. The smoke is nice and wispy.
I was told this from the HS I purchased an IL Terminal caboose from about a year ago. He said heating up the caboose was an issue but Lionel has addressed it. Seems to work nicely until I overfill it Also forum members have pointed out that, if you a running DCS, you don't need to have 18 volts -- could that causes excessive heat?
The newer cabooses have been "tuned" for command operation at 18 volts.
@aussteve posted:I believe there actually was one Lionel smoking caboose car that actually had a built in flapper mechanism to circulate the air.
Yes, they produced a NYC 'Pacemaker' Red & Gray model with a T stack and an audible flapper that puffed the smoke out very nicely. Not particularly realistic but a neat effect at the time.
