How to make Bachmann trains smoke more?

[SodorAdventures]

Hey!

   Just wondering, how do you make Bachmann trains smoke more? It only works when you go 100% and then it spits. I have a Bachmann controller and am pretty sure it may need more power. How would I go about doing this? Thanks for any help!

[richg]

Hey!

  Just wondering, how do you make Bachmann trains smoke more? It only works when you go 100% and then it spits. I have a Bachmann controller and am pretty sure it may need more power. How would I go about doing this? Thanks for any help!

You can't.

WYSIWYG

Rich

[SodorAdventures]

Ok....

   So there is no way to add more voltage to the track??

[richg]

Ok....

   So there is no way to add more voltage to the track??

Yes there is. The loco will run faster and fly off the layout much further.

Rich

[Joe Satnik]

A.  Buy them more cigarettes.

B.  Reduce the juice to the motor, but not the lights and smoke units. 

[richg]

A.  Buy them more cigarettes.

B.  Reduce the juice to the motor, but not the lights and smoke units. 

Reducing the voltage to the motor is not easy to do or even worth the effort.
Smoke is only to entertain children and is quite messy.

Rich

[Joe323]

Are you running DC or DCC?

[SodorAdventures]

I run dc, and I need them to smoke because I film them. Btw, these steam locks do have smooth units.

    Thanks!

[Joe323]

Regrettably I do not know a way to increase the smoke on a dc unit.  I have noticed that DCC units smoke more bcause the track is always at full power.  But as others have said I turn off thesmoke due to the mess. 

[SodorAdventures]

Regrettably I do not know a way to increase the smoke on a dc unit.  I have noticed that DCC units smoke more bcause the track is always at full power.  But as others have said I turn off thesmoke due to the mess. 

  Ah, yes, It does cause a mess

       Alright, What is the cheapest DCC system I could buy that would increase the voltage on the track?

[hawaiiho]

I'm not sure if it is feasible, nor am I familiar enough with that Loco to say how it is done; but I think I would look into the possibility of

replacing the smoke unit with one that puts out more smoke, if that is what I wanted.

Just a suggestion.

Will

[Joe323]

If your intent is only to increase smoke I would not bother even the increased smoke still looks like cigarette smoke not protypical at all. Also, running a DC loco on a DCC system could cause it to overheat frying the loco  Not all DCC systems will run a DC only loco.

Having said that the Bachmann EZ Command will run 1 DC loco on position 10.  I believe they can be had on ebay for around $60 - 70 and new for about $90.  DC locos will make a humming noise when not running and please be careful not to let it idle too long  as that will fry the loco

[Doneldon]

Sodor-

Unless you must stick to HO or OO because of the wide variety and availability of Thomas the Tank Engine equipment, I'd go to a larger scale which uses more power. Then install a Seuthe smoke generator which puts out more smoke than the little ones in most HO/OO equipment. (By the way, those little ones won't last very long if you figure out a way to drive them with more power without causing your locomotives to become airborn. They will burn out in short order.) Even with a puffing Seuthe unit, however, you're not going to have great gouts of smoke. More than a little Bachmann steamer, perhaps, but still a rather anemic output.
                                                                                                                                            -- D

[rogertra]

Set fire to it!  It will look just as realistic as the current smoke unit.

[J3a-614]

Sodor, your name suggests you're a Thomas fan, and I'd bet you're making your own Thomas movies.  As such, that might not be considered "serious" modeling to some of the posters here.  Still, the "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" movie had trees in certain shots made with individual brass etched leaves. . .

What you may need will be at least a larger smoke unit, possibly independently powered and/or controlled.  You're on your own on engineering such a device to fit in what I assume are OO-HO models, but here are some video clips that might be inspirational:

A commercial model with smoke in HO; even with blowers to simulate a steam engine's chuffing, the smoke and the air it moves in is too "thick" in texture, and you still have an exhaust that looks like a cigarette.  This is one of those things, like water droplets, that doesn't scale down well below a certain point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1PqxJKPlHY

Things get easier with larger scales, in this case in Gauge 1 (which is what the Thomas models used in the TV series were).  This is material from Germany:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXSMsEGZlBo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=5qRKYWVOJjE&NR=1

Even in Gauge 1, you still have a problem "scaling down" the fine particles that make up smoke, and their behavior in what is, in scale, an overly "thick" atmosphere that, in that scale, perhaps approximates a fairly thin paint instead of air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7qjH0nCmA4&feature=related

This is the most realistic looking smoke effect I've seen in a smaller scale (still Gauge 1).  It's another example from Germany, using an American prototype NYC 4-6-4 and a home-made smoke unit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4l4qIdNjc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhH9HJiBRX4

I hope this guy is single; I hate to imagine what his wife would say about that smoke in the house. . .

The secret:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_WdSFei2M

Be sure to read the comments on this and the other links; there is some description of how this fellow got that smoke.

Things get better still as you get larger.  Here we have a train robbery and wreck sequence from the 1952 film, "The Greatest Show on Earth."  This was a big-budget Hollywood flick (Cecil B. de Mille was the director), and the models used are live-steam jobs in 1-inch to the foot scale.  This makes the locomotives something like 15 inches tall, 10 inches wide, and the passenger cars about 7 feet long!  Despite the movie now being 60 years old, in my opinion this model footage looks better than most of the computer-generated stuff that would be used for this sequence today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUtf_RE6r5Q

The trailer from the movie--I recommend it, hope you get to see it and enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggnE9DyX0yE

Some footage of real trains (from Britain) that you may enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ZAv7aUUp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt69tDavhN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4ENK8dt5M

Watch the sparks from the drivers in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbAxtTkxUcg

This will do to keep you busy for a while:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0_uWbQ_Gc&feature=relate