4-8-4 Niagara no smoke

[toonces62]

I have a brand new 4-8-4 Niagara that I bought a few years ago and never ran till today. I put the smoke liquid in and ran the loco for about 45 mins and it never produced smoke. Any ideas as to why it won't produce smoke? Is there a switch hidden somewhere that turns the smoke unit on and off? Any help would be appreciated

[simkon]

The loco can't be brand new and purchased a few years ago, because the 4-8-4 Niagara has not been made with smoke for quite a while. Does the box say Bachmann Plus, if so your loco is not brand new and is at least 10 years old. That may be part of the problem, and the smoke units were never very reliable in the first place, they are just a novelty effect for the non-serious model railroader or for show for the kids. The smoke actually will make you need to clean your track and locomotive much more often because it will form a film on the rails and wheels and cause poor conductivity. As long as the loco runs fine otherwise there is no reason to do anything nor is there anything you can do anyways because the loco is no longer available with smoke. For items more than one year old, there is a nominal service charge for repair or replacement , for your loco it would be $25 plus an additional $50 DCC upgrade fee plus $12 to ship the locomotive and you are looking at $87 for a new DCC loco without smoke, which accomplishes nothing in the end if you want smoke.

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
Well,
if it's new production without a smoke unit, that would explain it...
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[bobwrgt]

If you look down the smoke stack with a flashlight and see white plastic with a metal tube in the center you have a smoke unit.
If it has been in storage for several years it could be rusted or the wire to the smoke unit corroded. The wire for the unit is just pushed up against the side of the frame inside the engine to make contact..
Did you put 6-8 drops of oil in??
Even if you get it working you will not get very much smoke unless you run the engine at full speed. Then it will fly off the track.
I have no idea why Bachmann even put smoke units out that don't work. Only 1 out of 100 put out smoke that you can see.

Bob

[jbsmith]

The loco can't be brand new and purchased a few years ago, because the 4-8-4 Niagara has not been made with smoke for quite a while. Does the box say Bachmann Plus, if so your loco is not brand new and is at least 10 years old. That may be part of the problem, and the smoke units were never very reliable in the first place, they are just a novelty effect for the non-serious model railroader or for show for the kids. The smoke actually will make you need to clean your track and locomotive much more often because it will form a film on the rails and wheels and cause poor conductivity. As long as the loco runs fine otherwise there is no reason to do anything nor is there anything you can do anyways because the loco is no longer available with smoke. For items more than one year old, there is a nominal service charge for repair or replacement , for your loco it would be $25 plus an additional $50 DCC upgrade fee plus $12 to ship the locomotive and you are looking at $87 for a new DCC loco without smoke, which accomplishes nothing in the end if you want smoke.

OBVIOUSLY this guy did not even bother reading the question and just went off on an Anti-Smoke Crusader answer.


"Just answer the question"  = Sam Donaldson, ABC newsreporter.   


A locomotive can still be considered new if purchased along time ago but never used.
In the Model RR world among others this is called  "New Old Stock".

Did you run the loco at 75% to 100% throttle? The smoke units usually won't work at lower speeds.
Even at 100% it will NOT fly off the the track.
Sometimes they won't work if Over-filled with fluid.
Could just be a defective smoke unit.

If you choose too, you could always try a new replacement smoke unit.

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_91&products_id=1705