Locomotive rec with no smoke or smoke switch?

[shrug]

Hi there, complete neophyte here looking to get back into the hobby. 

I love the steam locomotives, but I'm reluctant to buy one with a smoke unit for safety/cleanliness issues.  Anyone have any recommendations for a steam locomotive with no smoke unit or at least a switch to turn it off? 

I liked the festive color of the Bachmann 50402 HO Smoky Mountain USRA 0-6-0 Steam Locomotive w/Tender #99 or USRA 0-6-0 w/ Smoke & Slope Tender - North Pole & Southern® #25. 

Any guidance is appreciated!

[jward]

I've got several of those USRA 0-6-0s. The smoke units on them are easy to remove as they sit in a cavity in the chassis just below the smokestack. Loosen the screws holding the frame halves together just enough to get a small screwdriver in there and the smoke unit pops right out. On the ones I have it wasn't actually wired to anything, and worked off of small electrical contacts against the frame halves making it very easy to remove.

[Len]

Adding to what Jeff said, if you ever decide to go with DCC the empty smoke unit cavity makes a nice place to stick a hardwired "N" or "Z" scale decoder. Just be sure it's rated for at least 1 amp and it will work just fine in an HO loco.

Len

[jward]

Also, even if the locomotive you buy has a smoke unit, you don't have to put smoke fluid in it to run the locomotive.

[trainman203]

You are spot on with your assessment about smoke units in steam locomotives.  No serious Model Railroaders use them because the smoke just doesn't look realistic, you cannot scale the physics of smoke down to HO scale.  You are correct that the smoke presents a cleanliness issue, that after a while an oily film gets all over everything anywhere near the layout.  And the unit is just something else to break.

I have a couple of steam engines with smoke units that were made by one of the Bach Man's competitors.  They were DCC locomotives so I was able to switch it off with a CV ("control value") and it has never been turned on, ever.