14
0-4-0 Steam Engine Instructions
Locomotive Smoke Unit Maintenance
Operating the engine without smoke fluid and with the smoke unit
switch in the ON position can damage your smoke unit wick, causing
the wick to become hard, blackened and unabsorbent around the
heating element. When this occurs, it may be difficult for the wick to
soak up the smoke fluid resulting in poor or no smoke output. If that
occurs, we recommend that you inspect and/or replace the wick taking
care to not run the smoke unit without fluid in the future. You can
inspect the wick to see if it needs replacement by removing the smoke
unit inspection cover from the body as seen in Fig. 21. After removing
the chassis and
inspection cover
screws lift the
inspection plate away
and inspect the wick.
If the wick is darkly
discolored and hard, it
should be replaced.
Replacement wick and
detailed instructions
are available directly
from MTH Electric
Trains.
Figure 20: Removing the locomotive body for smoke unit
maintenance.
Figure 21: Opening the smoke unit for
wick replacement.
