smoke - Chattanooga engine

[skooksteve]

Just got a new Chattanooga train. It does not smoke as it's supposed to. There appears to be an LED in the smokestack that I assume heats the smoke liquid. It doesn't smoke no matter how long I run the train to allow it to heat up. Have contacted customer support but waiting for reply. If there is a simple solution I would appreciate knowing about it.

[ACY]

Yes the simple solution is forget about the smoke it is more of a hassle than what it is worth. It will require you clean your track more frequently because it will coat the track and everything else in a film that hurts the conductivity of the rails and wheels. The only way to get it to work is to run it at full throttle for maybe 15 to 20 minutes and then not turning the dial down at all. In HO scale smoke machines are not reliable and the smoke is  not realistic, there are no real good things about them in HO. If you want smoke go with O scale or large scale.

[skooksteve]

Thanks for the input. I agree with your logic. Just thought it would be fun to see it work but not worth the maintenance (not to mention over-using the engine). Too bad they use this as a selling point.

[richg]

Thanks for the input. I agree with your logic. Just thought it would be fun to see it work but not worth the maintenance (not to mention over-using the engine). Too bad they use this as a selling point.

The issue is Bachmann just sells the locos with smoke for children who run their locos at about 100 mph. I have a couple videos of the Chattanooga made some years ago and they are really moving.
There is another HO brand with smoke that I think might be better, well for various values of better. About $400 I believe.
If you are good, you can add a smoke generator to your steamers. But you better be good at this. Mechanical an electrical skills.

Rich

Rich