I lost my smoke juice and it’s $6 for a new bottle, I heard it’s possible to substitute it with cooking oil until I buy it. Is this true?
Don’t use cooking oil-the unit doesn’t get anywhere near hot enough to vaporize it. You’ll kill the smoke unit, and end up having to replace the whole thing(since the Pennsy Flyer has a sealed smoke unit that you can’t open and clean out). If you’ve already done this, a new smoke unit isn’t but $15 and easy to swap.
There really isn’t an acceptable substitute for the proper smoke fluid. Some folks claim that you can use lamp oil, but this really is a horrible idea and can cause serious problems(flames shooting out of the smoke stack serious).
I don’t know if Lionel’s started adding smoke off switches to this particular engine(my 15 year old one doesn’t have one), but if they have, I’d suggest turning the smoke unit off until you get more fluid.
If you don’t have a smoke off switch, you can easily temporarily disconnect the smoke. There are two screws which hold the valve guides and front truck in place. There should be a wire under one of these screws. Loosen the screw, disconnect the wire, and tape it off. This will also keep the headlight from working, however.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:08 am
I have heard this too but never tried it. Here is a directory link that you may find a page helpful if you have some time to search.
http://www.model-train-help.com/mod21/model-train-smoke.html
References :
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:48 am
Don’t use cooking oil-the unit doesn’t get anywhere near hot enough to vaporize it. You’ll kill the smoke unit, and end up having to replace the whole thing(since the Pennsy Flyer has a sealed smoke unit that you can’t open and clean out). If you’ve already done this, a new smoke unit isn’t but $15 and easy to swap.
There really isn’t an acceptable substitute for the proper smoke fluid. Some folks claim that you can use lamp oil, but this really is a horrible idea and can cause serious problems(flames shooting out of the smoke stack serious).
I don’t know if Lionel’s started adding smoke off switches to this particular engine(my 15 year old one doesn’t have one), but if they have, I’d suggest turning the smoke unit off until you get more fluid.
If you don’t have a smoke off switch, you can easily temporarily disconnect the smoke. There are two screws which hold the valve guides and front truck in place. There should be a wire under one of these screws. Loosen the screw, disconnect the wire, and tape it off. This will also keep the headlight from working, however.
References :
Long-time Lionel collector and operator
Chemist with a particular interest in smoke fluid