I have been thinking about getting one of the older Arnold steamers with the working smoke. Does anyone here have any experience with these? What type of smoke fluid? Do the smoke generators burn out easily? How much smoke do they produce? Any help would be appreciated.
Years ago, when Walthers imported the Arnold line, I bought a German prototype, tender-drive loco with smoke generator. The generator used Seuthe smoke fluid [http://www.seuthe-dampf.de/start.htm?produkte_dampf-rauch-destillate.htm]. Supposedly the generator can burn out if left on without fluid. The on/off switch for the generator was located on the bottom of the boiler and was inconvenient to access. Fluid fill level, through the stack, was critical and hard to determine - too little or too much fluid and there would be no smoke output. Also, track voltage had to be relatively high for the generator to begin working. When functioning optimally, the smoke output could be impressive. However, the smoke had a somewhat unpleasant odor and deposited an oily residue on top of the loco. In the end, I took advantage of Walther's money-back-guaranty and returned the loco through the LHS for a refund.
There was another line out there that also had a smoke generator for brief time. It replaced the headlight so thus no headlight. All the info. I have come across on these thing had one thing in common. Leaving an oily residue that became an issue. The other product that I can't remember now also had been stated to not have performed that well.
