Does the Spectrum line of steam locomotives make smoke?
No. Thank goodness.
No, only 3 of the standard line locos, the 0-6-0 (w/ tender), 2-6-0 and 2-6-2.
I'm assuming you are all talking about HO scale...
NM-Jeff
Smoke?
No thank you, I quit.
Now I cannot stand smoke around me.
So I have made sure all my locomotives quit too.
But with your locomotives, it is your choice.
Jim
I'm not a big fan of smoke either these days, but I will admit once in a while when I walk into the train shop and smell the faint smell of locomotive smoke it takes me back to fond memories sitting on a hardwood floor at 6 or 7 years old and running my trains on the over and under figure eight... that's 40+ years ago and the memories are as clear as if it were just yesterday.
The first day I have the train set up around the tree each year I put a couple drops of fluid in the smoker just for the yearly picture. My kids get a kick out of it sense it is a rare sight.
I have also sealed a smoke stack or two on larger scale locos with balloon stacks and dropped in dry ice and a a little water, the affect is a little better the a smoke generator to be honest.
NM-Jeff
P.S. no the cold has not made the plastic brittle nor break or crack.
dry ice? i like that idea. no oily residue from the smoke to get on the track and cause problems.
Quote from: jward on October 28, 2011, 03:42:21 AM
dry ice? i like that idea. no oily residue from the smoke to get on the track and cause problems.
I work in theatre and we use dry ice.
It can be DANGEROUS.
It can burn and it can blind you if it gets into your eyes for only a second or two.
It's not a toy to be used at home around kids.
Was just thinking it might be fascinating for my 3 year old grandson which is why I am getting into this hobby in the first place, he loves trains
aero-
I suppose the negative reactions to smoke have you wondering. I share the anti-smoke sentiments for several reasons: First, it doesn't really look like smoke unless you run your trains at all ahead flank emergency for 10 minutes or more to really heat things up, and even then it's underwhelming. More significantly, it makes a mess. The smoke fluid is basically mineral oil which condenses once it's up the stack. And where does it condense, I hear you wonder. All over, but especially on the top of the locomotive, followed by the track and scenery. It can ruin a loco's paint job and lead to much more frequent track cleaning, something I've never heard an MR describe as a fun thing. However, I'll bet your grandkids love the smoke, so go for it.
Narrow-
I don't share your fondness for the odor of model train smoke. Personnally, I prefer the aroma (and there's a BIG difference) of the real deal. I did like the smell of the ozone produced when we changed directions in our locos by shorting out the track with a piece of lead tinsel from the once-live-now-dry-as-tinder Christmas tree. I'm still surprised we never had a nice fire to help celebrate the season. Amazingly, we never even got in trouble for doing this. My Dad was usually gone around Christmas as he was a dining car steward and the trains were packed at the holidays, and my Mom was so happy that we didn't have burning candles like she had grown up with that she apparently didn't think a little spark posed any real danger. My memories of these (mis)adventures are clearer than yours, though. While I recall Christmas in the 50s vividly, the things which happened only yesterday are often just a blur. That's what happens when you get old.
-- D
QuoteI work in theatre and we use dry ice.
It can be DANGEROUS.
It can burn and it can blind you if it gets into your eyes for only a second or two.
It's not a toy to be used at home around kids.
Good Grief...
Dry Ice is used for all sorts of School projects. it's not Liquid Nitrogen for crying out loud.
I can name a hundred things in your house more dangerous then Dry Ice.
lets start with the Hot coil warming oil to a vapor and most times spitting and popping same out the stack, next 120vac power pack and electrified track... of coarse My kids don't handle the dry ice, nor do they plug in the power packs or hook up the wiring or handle smoke fluid.
Sure dry ice can be a hazard, its frozen Carbon Dioxide around -109F, the gas is the samething that causes your soda to fizz. Meat/fish suppliers often pack item shipped to homes in DryIce. Really not that big a Deal unless you stick it to your eye I guess.
Follow this link to see all the "Dangerous ways Dryice is used
http://www.dryiceinfo.com/science.htm
NM-Jeff
you may want to do what i did for my son at age 4.
i bought him his first locomotive, found some cheap old train set cars from the 1980s, and let him play with them whenever i worked on the layout. he dropped them on the floor a few times but quickly learned how to take care of them. in the meantime, my better quality trains were spared damage.
at the time, i had a double track layout, and we'd sometimes race trains on the parallel tracks.
Narrow-
Yes, dry ice is fun. But it is dangerous, too.
If you don't think so, put an opened carton of milk in a cooler in which you're using dry ice. In about 90 minutes you'll have carbonated milk and I can tell you that stuff is wicked.
-- D
HAHAHA, Donaldon I can see you spitting the milk out all over the place when you felt the unexpected sensation/taste :P
I know dry Ice can be a hazard so can the hot water coming from the water heater if you let kids run their own bath, dry ice is so commonly sold at super markets and used in school projects with little to no regulation, that alone is an indicator that there are few accidents and or issues with Dry Ice.
I rank the danger from dry ice right up there with a sharpened pencil and or pair of scissors, careless use will result in an injury.
No injuries are likely to occur from a chunk of it riding around in the smoke stack on my locomotive once in a while, is my point.
NM-Jeff
Thats all I have to say on the subject other then if your unsure of Dry Ice Just don't buy any.
20 to 25 years ago someone made a steam locomotive that was powered with dry ice. I think it was O scale.
Was that the dry ice locomotive that had the dry ice in the tender and when it sublimated, the C02 gas provided the "steam" pressure to drive an oscillating steam engine? As I remember, it ran fine until the tender became so cold that the dry ice could no longer sublimate in sufficient quantities and so the locomotive slowed down and stopped. Not a whole lot different than live steamers running on propane. If you work them too hard, the propane tanks get so cold that the propane will no longer evaporate, the fire goes out, and the locomotive rolls to a halt. One way to get the propane flowing again is to warm the propane tank the same way the doughboys in WWI cooled their machine guns - practical but not exactly politically correct when you are pulling a train load of passengers on a Sunday afternoon. Nor would I recommend this method for recalcitrant dry ice locomotives, unless you stand way far back. Doneldon, are you listening?
Jim
Jim-
Surely you're not intimating that I do dangerous things! Why, I haven't had my life in my hands all week. Well, yes, it is just Monday morning, but that doesn't affect the accuracy of my claim. Just the range of it. Oh,oh. Here I go ...
The problem with cooling machine guns with you know what is that a soldier could carry only so much coolant and he needed a while to get stocked back up. I suppose that, if machine guns were used in support of the infantry, it would be fair to ask the infantry to support the machine guns in return. Maybe they had a special platoon to, uh, cool the machine guns. Organically, of course.
I don't think it would be a practical method to cool a dry ice gas source in a model locomotive, though. Some benchwork wouldn't support the weight of the cooler container, in the first place and, in the second place, what would it look like? Or smell like after a while? I shudder to think of it. And what would it do to the paint?
Thanks for getting me going on another of my borderline inappropriate flights of fancy. I'm back in control now and therefore able to refrain from writing what next came into my mind on this topic. All I will say is that it involves a person (most definitely NOT me), a late night roadside stop to empty the machine gun cooling vessel and a car door. Oh, yes. And I was working in the ER when he came in. Ouch. OUCH. OUCH!!!!!
-- D
p.s. Did I say Talleywhacker?
Haaaa hahahhhaha Ouch! :-[
P.S. that would produce some smelly smoke as well...
good idea. to take it a step further, you could do such servicing on a section of track ballasted like kitty litter. if you have cats, you probably have trouble keeping them off the layout anyway. may as well put them to use......