@1471SirFrederickBanbury It's not just you. I didn't add nearly as much smoke as before. The smoke unit intermittently shorts now, and I'm trying to prolong its life as much as I can since it's something like $70 to buy a replacement. When I do get a new one I'll record a real smoke show before the old one inevitably kills itself.
@@cwhall01 Considering how simple smoke units are, being composed of basically just a resistor and fan, you may be able to find and replace the shorting component, and maybe even get weaker resistors, which would increase the output. I wonder how Lionel could possibly get away with such a high price?
@1471SirFrederickBanbury this is a dual chamber smoke unit that runs the whistle steam and the main smoke. It's also a "smart" smoke unit (whatever that means). So it has some chips and sometimes thermistors in it which drives up the price. I miss the days of the resistor and a fan. Changing the resistor does sound really cool! It would be fun to experiment with different resistances to see how it changes the output. Thanks for the suggestion!
@@cwhall01 I know on UA-cam, Qora01m made his own smoke unit thats the best I've ever seen from basic resistors and a fan. I do plan also to experiment with tiny fog fluid thats used by the film industry, as that should be much better than the oil based smoke fluids that most people use. it would also leave no residue being water based.
Beautiful engine, just wished they used the movie whistle :/
@SarcasticBroth I know right? It has a custom sound card for the movie dialog anyway. But the whistle is has is very nice.
Is it just me, or is it producing a lot less smoke than before? Great video anyways.
@1471SirFrederickBanbury It's not just you. I didn't add nearly as much smoke as before. The smoke unit intermittently shorts now, and I'm trying to prolong its life as much as I can since it's something like $70 to buy a replacement. When I do get a new one I'll record a real smoke show before the old one inevitably kills itself.
@@cwhall01 Considering how simple smoke units are, being composed of basically just a resistor and fan, you may be able to find and replace the shorting component, and maybe even get weaker resistors, which would increase the output. I wonder how Lionel could possibly get away with such a high price?
@1471SirFrederickBanbury this is a dual chamber smoke unit that runs the whistle steam and the main smoke. It's also a "smart" smoke unit (whatever that means). So it has some chips and sometimes thermistors in it which drives up the price. I miss the days of the resistor and a fan.
Changing the resistor does sound really cool! It would be fun to experiment with different resistances to see how it changes the output. Thanks for the suggestion!
@@cwhall01 I know on UA-cam, Qora01m made his own smoke unit thats the best I've ever seen from basic resistors and a fan. I do plan also to experiment with tiny fog fluid thats used by the film industry, as that should be much better than the oil based smoke fluids that most people use. it would also leave no residue being water based.
@1471SirFrederickBanbury oh that sounds fantastic! Thank you for the suggestion, and let me know how your experiment goes!