I'm back! After some chronic illnesses and hospitalization and various operations, I seem to be OK again! I SO missed the forum!
Anyway, I finally got my 3309 (serial numb E74038, what does that make it, 1983/85??, in the blue clear plastic box); My question: How exactly does the the "smoke set" work. Mine worked once or twice and then simply stopped smoking. I cleaned the little flue with a needle, and bought new M smoke oil, but to no avail. I see there is a little brass tab just above the front globe - is this supposed to get warm, and then heat the oil? - I did notice that when working the telex coupling a few times (the front coupler seems to stick in the up position at times), all of a sudden there was a spurt of smoke! I am told that all the oil must be "used up", otherwise it gets "hard"? How is one supposed to clean it out?
Lots of questions, hope someone can help....otherwise it runs well, and is in very good condition.....
its good to be back folks!!
M track Joe

Joe,
Good to hear you've got your health back.
3309 smoke unit:
several things can go wrong with this.
a.) contact from the smoke unit to the chassis chimney.
b.) underneath the smoke unit there is a contact wire, use a fine file or nailfile and go over once and take off any corrosion
c.) the little brass tab could also have a little clean.What I do, put solder on it. make sure it is bent up enough to have contact with the smokeunit.

The telex coupling is a hard one and not easy to fix. Unless you know what your doing you could to more harm than good.
the only thing I can recommend, take both apart and observe the angle and everything elsre on the one that works and than look at the one that sticks and see if you can see anything different, especially the arm that lifts up when the solenoid is activated.
It almost works like a seesaw, iot gets lifted when the solenoid is activated and droppes when the solendoid is turned off. if that arm is not absolutely straight, the arm does'nt fall back down.

John

Hi Joe, Good to see you well.

3309 in plastic window box date 1982-1985

Running number 85 007.

Should be 1987, then... Looked at my 3308 which was also delivered in that clear/blue plastic box and it seems to be from 1985 with a serial number starting with E5...

I have not seen any other locos but the 3308 & 3309 packaged in this kind of box, so I wonder if there are any other 80's models that were sold with this (rather flimsy, I must say..) packaging?

Pleased to hear that you are well Joe.

REcently I was having problems with Telex and Smoke.
I did a factory reset of the decoder. all problems went away.

Nev

thanks everyone for the good wishes! Much appreciated....I have decided to let the experts look at the probs with the 3309 telex coupler and smoke issues, and so sent it off to the dealers....could end up with more hassles if I start to scratch where I shouldn't!!
m track Joe

All the boxes are broken!!!!!

Re: smoke. I think if you are analogue, there has to be a certain amount of current in the track for the smoke unit to work consistently well. That means high speed running.

I conveerted mine to digital, and love this engine that way.

It is very broken, held together with tape... Lousy plastic, it is... Not made for opening more than once...