Nubie needs advise

[rca4]

Hello, I just purchased my first large scale model railroad equipment, the Bachmann White Pass & Yukon set.  The smoke seemed to work somewhat yesterday and worked slightly today until I added some more smoke oil.  Can adding more smoke oil cause the smoke to go away?  Also, I can't quite figure out how to mount the fireman and engineer that came with the set.  Any advise or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Roger

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi!  Rca4,

Welcome to large scale railroading!!

It doesn't take much oil to make smoke, no more than 8 t0 10 drops at a time.  When it stops smoking be sure to turn off the switch in the smokebox front or you could burn up the smoke unit.  If you ran it for awhile with the switch on and no fluid you may have burned the smoke unit out.  Overfilling seems to just make a mess rather than cause damage.

I usually cut one leg off the engineer to get him into the tight cab and leave an arm hanging out the window.  The fireman can be placed on the tender front deck edge, some use a kind of sticky stuff to hold the feet to the deck, but I can't remember the name of the stuff.

That WP&Y set is very nice!!

Happy railroading!

[rca4]

Hey Bill, thanks for the input, it is appreciated.  I ran the train for the first time on Thursday for about 1/2 hour after placing 10 drops of smoke oil in the stack.  The train had smoke but not a lot.  When I started to run the train on the next day (Friday), it had just a very little smoke so I added about 8 drops of oil and it has not smoked at all since.  That seems pretty short lived to me.  Can anyone tell me how difficult it is to change the smoke device?

Thanks,

Roger

[the Bach-man]

Dear Roger,
Our smoke unit uses a filament on a central "spike". Sometimes the wire vibrates up the post; gently and CAREFULLY  pushing it down so it will contact the fluid in the bottom of the reservoir will help. The filament will burn out if run dry.
BTW, did you check the On/ Off switch behind  the smokebox door?
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Barry BBT]

Roger,

The smoke unit works very nicely, but there are a couple of issues to understand.   In my experience the smoke unit functions best above 12 volts, the problem is at 12 volts your loco will be moving pretty quickly so the smoke is hard to see. 

Since advancing to battery and R/C using smoke cuts into the battery duration, I skip it.   Also smoke outdoors with a little breeze will dissipate the smoke.

There some after market units which can deliver smoke at 5 volts, but you'll need to install a voltage regulator chip and a bridge rectifier (cheap and easy).

Barry - BBT

[rca4]

OK, today I removed the smoke stack and checked the smoke generator reservoir.  Sure enough, the reservoir was empty.  I added 10 drops of smoke oil and again had good smoke for less than 5 minutes when the smoke went away again.  I went through this process several times with the same result.  I also experienced a mist of oil drops that covers the engine after each run.  I tried movin the smoke generator coil down on the post but it did not help.  The smoke generator seems to just blow the oil out of the reservoir in nothing flat until it is dry again in just a matter of a few minutes.  I don't know what else to try at this point.  When I was young, I had an American Flyer freight train set that had smoke and it worked very well.  A few drops of smoke oil lasted for hours and one never had to shut off a switch to keep the smoke generator from burning out.

I also have an additional question about what options there are for adding additional sound to my train set such as whistle and bell sounds?

Thanks for your kind consideration.

Roger

[Barry BBT]

Roger,

I used to recommend and install Sierra sound, but they have ceased supplying units for large scale.  I recently install a newly released sound unit from Phoenix, a PB9.  A  very good unit, but a bit pricey.  There are some other sources of less expensive units some may recommend and because of their cost may be worth trying.

Barry - BBT

[Jon D. Miller]

Roger,
In reference to smoke.

The reservoirs on most locomotives, not just the Bachmann units, don't hold that much fluid.  Constant refilling is the norm rather than the exception.  Also, most smoke units will slobber smoke fluid on the locomotive.  For these reasons I don't use smoke with any manufacturer's units; not worth the hassle.

You'll find the smoke units are nothing like what we were use to with our Amercan Flyer or Lionel trains.


One of the "Enthusiastic Children"


JD

[rca4]

Hey Barry,  thanks for the input.  WOW!, you were absolutly correct about the pricey info.  That Pheonix sound card costs as much as the entire White Pass train set.  Now that you put me on the right track, I did a little more research and found that the ITT sound cards and devices are much more reasonable.

Hey Jon, thanks for your insight.  I guess you are right, I will just have to give up on the smoke unit.

Thanks again to everyone for your input and comments.

Roger

[grumpy]

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