Would you like syncrosmoke with your locos?

[son of triangman]

Would you like syncrosmoke with your locos if Hornby re-introduced it?

[TerryB]

This one gets a massive YES from me .....
.....my own layout



...none of the above pics have been "photoshopped" or retouched in any way.

[slackbladder]

No, it just doesn’t scale right for me. Much the same as real flowing water it just doesn’t scale right.

[Free_at_last]

No. Same reason as above

[thomas the plank engine]

As i run mainly steam and in the garden as well it has just got to be a massive YES YES YES. Only snag I can foresee is that due to todays current loco moulding being so fragile and thin, meltdown of the chimney and surrounding area is going to be a massive problem. However if they were to use the much older (ancient possibly) steam chambers that Tri-ang used in their steam loco's if cannot foresee any problems what so ever. Plus I have noticed that the old Tri-ang smokers seem to run a lot lot longer than the newer smoke version. Old ones have a much larager chamber for the smoke fluid to reside in.

Ian

[rocketman]

Yes I would.
For me modeling is impressionistic (it doesn't have to be P4, exact scale, but it does have to look the part).Nothing looks better for a steam loco (or bad for a diseasel) than to puff stuff and the old Triang synchro was the most realistic.
I have no experience of smoke under DCC yet, but I used to like it, within limitations, on DC...I had one of the original Midland Compounds which I liked so much that I bought some Seuthe units to add to my Wrenn Mallard etc (it was the best and it had a metal body). I would prefer a synchronised smoke unit to individual sound units in steam locos (I am quite happy with a generic sound track, but `i would buy locos which had switched synchronous smoke units at a reasonable price and did not melt their chimneys.

oh...and complied with modern safety regulations about inhaling in homes.
rocketman

[ChrisWV10]

Absolutely!

[GunnerBill]

No chance.

The smoke looks all wrong.

[Bufferstop]

Know what you mean about the look. It's the same with sound. Many express locos routinely slip when pulling away, so if your going to synchronise it with the motion you need the loco to slip. Talking to a couple of friends, after emptying a few cans, we worked out that a couple of small solenoids pressing on the pony and trailing trucks could control the adhesion and allow wheel slip. Trouble is next day it seemed a darned sight more difficult.

[rocketman]

i would buy locos which had switched synchronous smoke units at a reasonable price and did not melt their chimneys.
synchronous is important here..and more so than sound to me
rocketman

[Metadyneman]

I have to give it the thumbs down I'm afraid. Yes something resembling smoke looks nice I'll grant you but it has to look right. Smoke Oil does not produce anything like the right amount of smoke to make it look real. The picture which TerryB has submitted looks to me like he's wafted a rather large Havana cigar over his locos rather than proper steam coming out of the chimneys so sorry I give it the no. (even if I do posess a Triang Brit with synchrosmoke!)

[TerryB]

..... The picture which TerryB has submitted looks to me like he's wafted a rather large Havana cigar over his locos rather than proper steam coming out of the chimneys .........

I can assure that was not how the pic was taken .....it's genuine.....[each loco was actually held back with a length of wire on the rear coupling,so that although the wheels were spinning,they were going nowhere] .....and talking of Havana cigars .... .....I wonder if the H&S Brigade would actually allow smoke effect locos now .... .... I vacated the loft pretty sharpish after I'd taken those pics ....

best regards
T.

[HonestTom]

I wouldn't, same reason as the others - you can't scale air down. Then there are factors like the way smoke looks different depending on air moisture, air temperature, how the engine's being fired and so forth. Full-size smoke doesn't look so bad on really old models, but with today's standards of detailing it would ruin the suspension of disbelief for me.

[son of triangman]

I don't we will ever get scale smoke guys, but you never know. Nice pics TerryB, looks like a proper shed scene around lighting up time.

Syncrosmoke is more discreet during normal running, but looks fab with smoke lingering under bridges and the like just as it would on the real thing.

For those who don't know syncrosmoke and how it works here's the gen. Syncrosmoke smoke units are a cast metal block with wadding and an element in one end with a power contact running to the brush clip on the X.04 motor, the other pickup being from the live chassis. The other end of the casting has a cylinder and piston arrangement, the piston arrangement running off the main drive worm of the motor. The piston injects a small amount of air via a small hole in the cylinder into the chamber where the element is and the casting is covered with a top plate which has a hole or holes in it depending on which model it is fitted to. The wadding in the element chamber holds Seuthe smoke oil and the element heats the oil up. The jet of air from the piston forces "smoke" out of the top casting hole usually place under the chimney. The casting is usually a safe distance from the base of the chimney to avoid heating fo the plastic. Syncrosmoke has been voted the most realistic smoke system in existance by the model press over the years in many aritcles and there has been nothing much of the same calibre to replace it since.

Tri-ang originally used the old style brass Seuthe units which you can still buy today and get the brass smoke units in some models, but these were found to melt the loco chimneys, so a new system was thought up and syncrosmoke was born.

The later smoke units used by Hornby from 1980 onwards and fitted to the likes of the D49, Schools, County, Compound and 28xx are just a heating unit like the brass Seuthe ones without synconised smoke, sadly these units overheat the chimneys on locos causing melting so have the same problems as Tri-ang experienced with their models and the brass smoke units.

Sadly Hornby abandoned the lovely Syncrosmoke smoke units simply as a cost cutting excerise. To me personally I think they threw out the family silver as it was and still is very, very popular and looks really good when running.

Keep them votes coming guys.

[son of triangman]

Syncrosmoke equiped B12 chassis with the smoke unit clearly visible. The chassis was being overhauled and the Red wiring hadn't be fully fitted hence length of wires.