To rod stewart

I'm sure someone else sells them, but probably not Radio Shack.  Try some of the larger on-line electronics parts houses.

Thanks john.

They are very cheap if you buy them from Lionel.  MTH uses a 16 ohm.  When they put the two together  they measure 8 ohms.

 I usually just buy the Lionel or MTH smoke resistors.

I have looked trhough the offerings at Digikey and Mouser, but there are so many optional values that I have not concluded which one or ones would be the  best to get. I may order a few different ones one day and experiment.

 

The last one I repaired is a Lionmaster cabforward #4276.

The element in it measured about 7 ohms, and seems to work fine.

I drilled out the air intake hole to about 3/16", got rid of the stock wadding, and replaced it with some tiki torch wicking.

Works about 200% better.

 

I could not get the charred sleeve off the element for fear of ruining the fine wire element, so I just left it in place, at least for now.

Since the Lionel element is 7 ohms, I thought of replacing it with two MTH 16 ohm elements in parrallel, which would give the same resistance, but twice the amount of heat.

I worried about over-taxing the TMCC smoke triac, so thought better of it.

 

Rod

Unless you're buying a number of items, Lionel's shipping eats up the "cheap" price.

Try Chuck Sartor at Mizell trains in Denver for MTH, and he may also have Lionel.

 

Rod

My thoughts exactly john! Lionels shipping is very high for a $2 part. Guess I just have to stock up on them again.

Rod,  replacing a 8ohm with 2 16ohms in parrallel pulls the same amount fo current.  So the load is the same to the triac.  Don't think it is twice the heat since each resistor sees half the current.

 

You do have twice the heated surface area and that should help.  G

Rod, you said:

 

"I got rid of the stock wadding, and replaced it with some tiki torch wicking.

Works about 200% better."

 

Would you please explain the 200% better part of your statement?  More smoke, holds more fluid, what???

 

Thanks,

Dave

We have covered smoke units before I know. Mike regan has a nice video about them on lionels youtube site. My only and last question about smoke units to all of you is, what sort of wicking material seems to get chared the lest?I run my units on high most all the time. Keep plenty of fluid in them. But the wicking material seems to get chared to the resistor and needs replaced often. Is this just normal or is there a wick that char's the least? Just wondering!

Don't know about Rod, but for me it's 200% better smoke output.  Of course, it uses fluid faster, that's the byproduct of more smoke.

However, the heated surface will be cooler, so that may actually impede the smoke generation.

Yes I mean that there is a much larger volume of smoke, which is what its all about.

The Lionel wad material seems prone to charring in my mind, whereas the tiki torch wicking seems less so. This is kind of subjective of course.

 

Another big factor I believe is air flow through the heating chamber.

Lionel units that I have seen are choked with wad material.

I replace it with a piece of tiki torch about 4" long and slightly smaller around than a pencil. I poke it between the resistor and the board, then wrap the ends loosely together, then curl them into the chamber as the top goes onto the smoke unit.

This seems to allow air to better pass through the chamber, and together with the larger air intake hole, seems to produce a much improved smoke volume.

It's no MTH for sure, but way better.

 

And I accept that a pair of 16 ohm MTH elements would produce the same load on the triac as a 7 ohm element, so it should not be overloaded. I may just experiment to see if two elements works any better than one. But to be honest, the change of wick material works so well, there is really no need, IMO.

 

Rod

True,  but I think you design it for the right balance.  MTH PS-2 engines use the 2 in parrallel model and we know they are excellent smokers.  G