I take the opportunity of Sam's question to add mine(hope you don't mind, Sam):
I'd like to add a smoke generator to my Mallet 37962, that has no provision for it.
What kind of smoke generator could suit?
I don't know yet if I will connect it to the pick up shoe, or to the lighting output of the decoder (the loco has only 1 function: lighting!). Any advice?
Anybody knows the current consumption ?
Thanks in advance for your answer!
Fred

Sam: I have the physical and electric characteristics of all the Seuthe generators at http://www.sem-co.com/~rschaffr/trains/seuthe.jpg

Hi Ron,

Your layout too is very impressive!!! Congratulations!!!!! [:p][:p]
An impressive work!!

Best regards
Stefano

Thanks. I have been neglecting it lately..too many other demands on my time plus I'm helping my son move into his new house. He has been living with us for several years saving for a down payment. As soon as he moves his stuff out of my basement, I will have room to expand. I am planning an industrial area with an e-lok and diesel parking and maintenance area where his TV and stereo are presently located. I have already built the Vollmer maintenance shed for it.

Robert:

I only use Seuthe generators. I have never had a problem with them. I believe the 72270 is a rebranded Seuthe, but I have never bought one. As a side note, I have found that the function voltage on the ESU decoders is less than that on the 60902. I drive coach lights with relays, and had to go to a 12v relay for ESU decoders, wheras I use a 24v relay with the 60902. If you are driving your smoke from an ESU or ESU derivative Marklin decoder, that could be why it is underproducing.

Hi all,

I use smoke generators in various loks: a 7226 in an BR 44 (3047, analogic mode), and 72270 in an S 3/6 (analogic) and a Mikado (37973, digital).

I have found that steam production depends very strongly on the quantity of steam oil filled into the generator. Maerklin recommends to put 6 drops of that special oil, but the drops can be small or large. Moreover, it is almost impossible not to spill the oil over the lok with these oil ampoules. So you never know how much oil is really in the steam generator.
Therefore I use my "junkie set" (a 3 milli-liter syringe with a steel needle) for this operation. 150-200 micro liters seems to be the optimal quantity to get reasonable steam. This is a little tricky. So I would appreciate to learn about any better method.

The steam oil is a mixture of so called n- and i-alcanes, i.e. noncyclic hydrocarbons. It is not toxic, but sensitive people might get skin irritation when they get in contact with that liquid. The smoke coming from out of the lok chimney is more or less the same as the white smoke that lifts from a candle that you have just blown out.

Best regards

Hans Martin

Yeah baby - A must for solving dem swedish quizzes.. [:p]

Glad to hear we have some smoke junkies in the crowd...

As for Suethe, that is what my dealer is sending me saying that is is the identical unit to the Marklin (made for Marklin)... however, I'm paying $25 for them, which isn't much of a price break from the Marklin branded ones... so I'm not sure what the advantage would be. However, Marklin doesn't void your warrantee if you use them, I'm told.

Thanks again for the info guys..

Hello Guus, Ron, All,

I'm back in the forum after one week.
Thanks for your valuable advices, and complete Seuthe information on Ron's site!
After measuring the chimney of my Mallet loco, I have to choose a "slim" chimney model, and even, I'll have to make the base of the loco chimney larger, for the Seuthe generator has a 7 mm diameter, for a chimney hole of 6 mm![:(]
I'm not very keen on that.
Has anybody already done that? Any advice for avoiding catastrophic result? Should I use a drill or a mill?

Thanks,

Fred

THAT WAS CORRECT.

Make sure four drop of fuild into it.