Iron King Smoke

[CamDJ]

My son has an Iron King Steam train and wants to use the smoke that came with it.  We can't seem to find the instructions and are afraid to just put the liquid into the funnel.  We've read through threads on this site regarding using the smokers and see that locomotives with smokers have switches to turn them on.  We don't see any switch and can't find anywhere to open up the boiler/smoke box.  Does the Iron King have a switch?  Do we simply put the liquid into the funnel?

Thank you,
Cam's Mom

[ACY]

I have never seen a Bachmann locomotive that came with a factory installed switch for the smoke unit. There is no switch for your locomotive. In the box your locomotive or train set came in, there was instructions for using your smoke unit, if you don't have instructions then you threw them away or misplaced them. At any rate, only add a few drops of fluid, adding too much or too little will yield undesirable results (no smoke will come out). In order for the smoke to work you have to run your locomotive at full speed and you can not slow it down at all or stop it or the smoke will stop coming out. In HO scale smoke units are very unreliable and this one is no exception. The larger scales like O and large scale have a bit more reliability and don't require the train to be running at full speed. It is also possible that your smoke unit may not work at all if you have used this locomotive a while and not the smoke unit. In the end smoke is usually just a lot of hassle for a minute or two of unrealistic smoke that you can barely see.

[Doneldon]

Mom-

Smoke has a number of problems, like getting dirt-friendly mineral oil condensate all over the loco, track and scenery, which makes it not, IMHO, worth it for the meager output of fake looking smoke. However, a child railroader might see it differently. If you do decide to use smoke, only put 3 drops or so in at a time. Get a medicine dropper to put it in because the cruddy little squeeze bottles don't give you much control over the loading. Also, recognize that these units don't last very long. They seem to either get plugged up or burn out.

Just a note: If your son is old enough to use a computer, introduce him to this web site. He can get his questions answered and, more importantly, learn how he can use the Inet for something other than games while practicing his spelling, keyboarding and communication skills.
                                                                                                        -- D