I have a lionchiefplus hudson, and I noticed it does not smoke while in neutral. The instructions say this is to prevent damage, but mth and lionel legacy all smoke in neutral so why wouldnt Lionchief Plus?
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Hard to say, but it was obviously just a design decision. One difference is that Lionel and MTH also have remote control of the smoke, where the LC+ doesn't.
You also have to remember the target market, the other models have a target market of more serious train people, perhaps they figure it's not such a maintenance issue with those.
To really answer this question, you'd have to ask Lionel.
I have a LionChief Plus RS-3, it smokes in neutral. It's kind of a pain, I need to park it in a de-energized block, because there is no way to shut down the smoke or the engine from the remote, so it quickly uses up all the fluid if it sits energized. Actually, if you turn off the remote, the smoke does stop, but the loco then sits there beeping and flashing the cab lights.
I suspect the Hudson was changed as a response to that; if you need block wiring LC+ looks a lot less attractive.
I only have one LC+, the Camelback, it stops smoking in neutral.
There is no switch like TMCC and Legacy versions? G
He's talking about smoke when stopped, there's a switch to simply turn off smoke totally.
I have a little module I use that solves the issue if you want to turn off smoke when you're not moving. 
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My LC+ FT set smoke in neutral, sometimes quite well, othertimes weakly.
Prior to 2003, most Lionel TMCC steamers and all TMCC diesels utilized fan driven smoke units which smoked no differently at idle or when moving. After 2003 Lionel switched to a chuffer type unit in steamers that smoked only when engine moved. No smoke at idle. Beginning with the VL Hudson Lionel upgraded Legacy electronics which then allowed streaming smoke at idle and chuffing smoke when moving.
My guess is Lionel is using less costly electronics in LC+ steam that does not allow smoke at idle..
joe
Actually, the electronics in the LC+ is totally different than any of the TMCC stuff.
The later TMCC stuff would either run the fan when stopped or not run it, depending on where the chuff switch happened to end up when you stopped. However, they never turned off the heater, which could cook the wick if you stopped for an extended period of time and the fan wasn't running.
The turning off smoke when stopped with the LC+ steamers at least was a deliberate decision as the heater is turned off as well.
I have solved the issue of the TMCC smoke behavior, I just add a Super-Chuffer. 
My point is that if the unit has a switch, like conventional fan driven units do, you do have an option to shut it off when you do not want it, which means not having it smoke in idle seems weird. So there is an alternative to turn it off, though no via command. One of the problems with LC versus TMCC. Same problem I have with PS-1. Biggest detractor is not having remote smoke control. G
You're right George, it's certainly possible. I don't know why the choice was made with the steamers. The really odd part is, some people say the diesels smoke at idle, others say they don't! Is it possible they made them different for different models?
Well thank you all for the replys!
