Steam locomotive smoke unit needed

I have heard that the smoke units in Lionchief Plus engines are small and can usually work for installations like yours.

I can't find that smoke unit on the Lionel website, do you have a picture of what you have?

I think it should be possible to get that working better.  I have the Lionel 6-28083 Consolidation that was upgraded to PS/2 with the MTH fan driven smoke unit, tons of smoke.  The MTH unit is also the one I used in many TMCC upgrades.

The MTH unit measures 1" wide, 1.4" long, and 1.3" tall.  This is the unit installed in a brass steamer.

Hi, John.  Below are pictures of the smoke unit.  I think the code on the top, 1108, will tell you how old this is.  I bought it from Boxcar Bill.  Your image didn't come through, but the dimensions of the MTH unit sound like a good fit.  Do you happen to have a part number?

Appreciate your help.

Here's a laugh for you.  I can't find it on the Lionel site, but I have one in my parts box!   You really should be able to get decent smoke from this unit, I'm not sure why it's a problem.  I bought this years ago for a project that I ended up doing with a different unit. 

Have you made SURE the screws for the heater are TIGHT?  That's a major issue with these.

Here it is compared to the MTH smoke unit that I typically use.  You may be able to squeeze the MTH unit in, if you can't get that one to smoke you out, I'll be surprised.

You must have one big parts box.  As you know there isn't much room in the boiler; I don't think there is enough room between the CC M and the front of the frame.  Since you say it makes adequate smoke,  I'll try taking it apart again and test everything.  The new resistor is a 20 Ω ceramic, maybe I didn't brush all of the coating off.

Thanks, John.

Isn't the SSMK unit a regulated heater that would be 6-8 OHM? At 20 OHMS, I can see why no smoke.

Not this one, Chuck.  It is about 11 years old.  It used track power for the heater with a 27 Ω resistor.

If you're powering it with the TMCC package with a 20 ohm 2W resistor in there, you should be able to get some decent smoke.  The key is the proper wicking and making sure there is air flow from the fan chamber across the resistor top (firmly in contact with the wick), and on to the stack.

Chuck Sartor posted:

Isn't the SSMK unit a regulated heater that would be 6-8 OHM? At 20 OHMS, I can see why no smoke.

Chuck, the smoke unit itself has no electronics, it's just the motor and the resistor.  Changing the resistor to 20 ohms and running it from the TMCC output should do the trick.  The 6-38036 Consolidation had a mechanical smoke unit, no regulator.

Fixed.

The problem was the impeller.  In this unit if you push the impeller too far down the shaft, only part of the impeller lines up with the hole to the smoke unit.  Once the impeller was lined up with the hole we got copious amounts of smoke.

Thanks for your help.

Great, I knew this unit should some decently, glad it was simple.