Why don't spectrum steamers don't come with smoke

[RLS]

Why don't spectrum Steam engines come with smoke  

[the Bach-man]

Dear RLS,
Smoke is produced by vaporizing oil. and, as you may have heard, what goes up must come down, including oil. Most modelers who are willing to buy the higher quality models don't want to bathe them with falling oil!
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[GN.2-6-8-0]

The Bachmann's right on the money here....I have a BLI N&W Y6B with smoke capability and the 1st thing i did before running it was to turn the smoke unit off. while the newer smoke generating units perform better than those available years ago they still will leave a oily residue behind and thats something as the man said we don't want on locomotives costing $200 to $300....or more!

[CNE Runner]

Years ago I was a member of a traveling band of Lionel aficionados. We would gather at a member's home and immediately journey down to their basement layout (with one exception, all the member layouts were in basements). After running multiple Lionel/MTH smoke-equipped engines for a couple of hours one couldn't see the other side of the room. Usually the host's wife would start complaining that her view of the upstairs TV was becoming obscured! I can only imagine what we were putting into our lungs. Oh, the Bach Man is correct in saying "what goes up also comes down" as I spent many hours cleaning oil from engines, cars and structures. Smoking locomotives was a bad idea then and it is still a bad idea today.

Just my opinion,
Ray

[Doneldon]

Most of the visible stuff that came out of the smokestacks on old steamers was actually steam, unless the fireman threw a shovel of sand in to make for nice photos for railfans along the right-of-way, so the mineral oil smoke isn't even authentic.  It would be cool (no pun intended) if our models could put out real steam but I suppose that would take too much electricity and make the homasote swell up.

[rogertra]

Because it's toy like and unrealistic and most of us don't want to pay extra for some toy like accessory that we will never use.

Simple as that!

I hope Spectrum never put smoke in their locos, unless of course someone comes up with a system that's actually realistic. 

[Bo_Diddley]

It's my understanding that smoking loco's aren't preferred on layouts for several reasons.  They tend to deposit an oily residue all over everything, and they can "gum up" and cause traction/motor problems...  At least that's what the guys from a now-defunct club in my town told me...

While "smoke" can be aesthetically pleasing, it's an overall annoyance.

[Jim Banner]

I was recently reminded of another reason for not putting smoke into locomotives.  To put in a smoke unit, you have to make space for it.  That usually means using a boiler weight that is shortened at the front end.  That in turn shifts the balance point of the locomotive rearward.  

The locomotive that reminded me of this was a non-Bachmann Berkshire with the balance point between the third and fourth drive axles.  It ran beautifully on straight and curved track but derailed on every turnout it came to.  The owner had loaded down the pony truck with all the lead he could fit on top of it but it still derailed.  The only way to permanently cure the problem was to remove the smoke unit and pack the space with lead.  Or to put it another way, the cure was to shift the balance point forward so that it was between the second and third drive axles.  A bit more weight on the lead drivers was all it took.

I sometimes suspect it is the advertising department that want smoke and with the backing of the sales department, gets smoke over the objections of the engineering department.  We, as customers, end up paying extra for the smoke, then have to turn around and restore the locomotive to what it should have been in the first place.  [end of rant.]

Jim