Steam Smoke Problem

arnold894

Hello Everyone,

  I am new here, getting back into Marklin railroading after quite some time.  I am building a new layout and have my switching yard working (it was the only part saved off the old layout and have made some improvements). I tried to use some smoke generators last night. One of them put out a tiny amount of smoke but then nothing.  I tried 3 generators in 3 different trains engines.  The smoke fluid is about 15 years old.  Does that stuff go bad?

  Thanks!

    Craig

Seggl

Hi Craig,
I had similar problems with a few of my old Marklin locos. The oil wasn't the issue, I had to replace some of the old smoke generators. The new ones (new old stock I had in the collection) worked as expected with the 20 year old Marklin smoke fluid.
Make sure the generators make good electrical contact.
Smoke fluid isn't expensive. Why don't you order one new generator and some new fluid to test the old generators with new fluid? In best case they still work and you have a spare generator...

Good Luck

Railwriter

Seuthe makes different smoke generators for analog and digital -- in the same size and configuration. For example, for many Roco steam locomotives (that are factory equipped with or have a prepared space for a smoke generator) Roco recommends the no. 10 for analog and the no. 11 for digital. (Digital operates at a higher constant voltage, while analog uses a lower varying voltage.)

I assume Märklin also uses Seuthe smoke generators.

If you have a digital smoke generator installed in a loco being used in analog mode, it may not produce enough heat to turn the smoke fluid to smoke. If you use an analog smoke generator in a digital locomotive, it may burn out more quickly due to the higher voltage.

Something to think about.

-- Ernest