# Lionel steam trains--most smoke?



## ilikedis (Jun 25, 2012)

Is there a particular Lionel engine that is known to put out more smoke than other models?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, most of the fan driven smoke models will usually crank out some pretty nice smoke. There are also modifications you can make to older Lionel fan smoke units to increase the smoke.

I have to say, some of the best smokers I have are MTH locomotives, some of them are really frog-chokers!


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## klinger (Jan 2, 2011)

I have a pair of Lionel 681 turbines that seem to produce much more smoke than my other post-war steamers. I couldn't tell you why though. They are both the pill style.


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## callmeIshmael2 (May 28, 2012)

Would our venerable GunrunnerJohn please tell us how to modify Lionel steamers to put out more smoke? I've read somewhere that creating a small hole or two in the chamber will work, but the sound of that bothers me...


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

callmeIshmael2 said:


> Would our venerable GunrunnerJohn please tell us how to modify Lionel steamers to put out more smoke? I've read somewhere that creating a small hole or two in the chamber will work, but the sound of that bothers me...



Fan Driven: Involves drilling the air intake hole over the fan slightly larger to increase the intake. Removing the cloth sleeve that may or may not be present on the resistor and probably replacing the wicking material in the actual smoke chamber.

Traditional Puffer: You're pretty much limited to removing the cloth sleeve from the resistor if present, and replacing the wicking material while not covering up the air hole.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Lionel has a video telling in detail on what to do.


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## BigAl56 (Dec 14, 2011)

If you have an old postwar pill-style smoker the best you can do is convert them to liquid smoke. Modern Lionel locomotives made after 2001 or so have fan driven smoke units that put out lots of smoke. But the king of all smoke systems belongs to MTH who has made the best smoking locomotives since the mid 1990's.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

areizman said:


> If you have an old postwar pill-style smoker the best you can do is convert them to liquid smoke. Modern Lionel locomotives made after 2001 or so have fan driven smoke units that put out lots of smoke.


No need to convert the postwar units. They'll smoke on fluid just fine and probably better than with the conversion. And only the more expensive Lionel command steam and diesels have the fan driven smoke units. The starter sets still use the traditional puffer units.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Even many of the new Lionel conventional units have fan driven smoke, but Jake is correct that the cheaper starter units all still sport the puffer smoke units. Some of them will yield decent smoke, but nothing like a fan driven smoke unit.


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## KarenORichmond (Nov 14, 2011)

My Lionel New York Central smokes pretty good, MTH Pennsylvania smokes VERY well, but my Lionel Coca Cola Anniversary engine (The General) doesn't smoke nearly as well and it sounds are not as loud as the MTH one.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I have an MTH General that I'm waiting on the PS2 steam kit to upgrade it. It does have fan driven smoke, so it'll be cool to have synchronized smoke with the chuffing.


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

KarenORichmond said:


> My Lionel New York Central smokes pretty good, MTH Pennsylvania smokes VERY well, but my Lionel Coca Cola Anniversary engine (The General) doesn't smoke nearly as well and it sounds are not as loud as the MTH one.


 
Yep! what you said,but I must agree, MTH smokes the best,at least mine do.
but I gotta say,the new Lionels I just got, the ones with the new "Uber" board do smoke better than the older ones,[when I say older, I mean the oneS they produced last year]..........Mike


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

My Legacy stuff for the most part has excellent smoke, and as Mike says, the MTH stuff seems to have the industrial strength smoke units.


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