Those diesels look pretty darn realistic to me. So often, especially
with Alco's you would see a good amount of black smoke (turbo lag?--Lee,
Andre, Bud?) then the engine would start to move, that might be tough to
duplicate.
In the photo biz, we've used dry ice at times to make a low hanging
smoke or mist. I own a big time smoke machine. It's designed to be
used on a 1:1 set. I don't know if they make anything but white, but
Rosco makes the stuff. It also is an oil and can be overwhelming in a
small room, although at a rock concert it's probably no worse than other
things there.
There is another product we typically call A & B Smoke. One drop of
each makes a bit of smoke that would be great for a chimney, a campfire
etc. It's made up of some semi-nasty stuff, (muric acid) so use it with
care. I once tried it in a OMI 0-8-0. It really tarnished brass
quickly, but would have worked with a little breeze to bring the smoke
upward. A thing called a 'smoke cookie' will work to create a bit of
atmospheric haze or low lying fog. You can go to extremes for that
special contest shot. I used a similar effect when shooting the title
shot for the Houston S Gauger's we site. I was looking for that evening
haze that drifts over mountain passes.
When it comes to black smoke, there were WWII employee slogans stating
that black smoke was wasting coal. So management encouraged white
smoke. I also own the book about Cheyenne where the whole sky was
pretty nasty and they mention, it wasn't a good day for laundry on the
clothes line! You can image dozens of big engines belching out oil and
coal dust everyday on the ready track--cough, cough!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi Ed;
Some time ago (a couple years, I think), you posted a link to some
video from Norm Beesky's O/3 Rail layout that shows some of the most
effective smoke effects, as well as general good-modeling and
wonderful "Big Time Railroading" atmosphere that I recall anywhere.
http://norm.beesky.com/video/CentiDecaM1a.wmv
Seriously, does anyone watch that and think about the 3 rails or the
over sized couplers? Granted, it would be that much better full scale
and two rail...
The point is that both Lionel and MTH are very likely to include
things like smoke and crew talk, because that's what their main market
likes. As long as they don't make caricatures of the models to include
these features we should probably plan to deal with it. Sure, the
models might be theoretically less expensive without it, but most
modern business focuses on making fewer different versions of things
as a method of holding down costs. The model will be engineered to
have those features, and leaving a few components out of some pieces
will probably NOT lower the cost.
It is certainly worth expressing what we want to both companies.
Strident "nobody will buy it ..." comments probably are
counter-productive. I think those two points are all anyone needs to
keep in mind.
Pieter E. Roos
--- On Mon, 10/22/12, Ed <[email protected]
<mailto:Loizeaux%40SBCGlobal.net>> wrote:
> > Ed,
> > I always thought that the big black smoke cloud meant
> the steam engine was aplying more horsepower to move up
> certain grade conditions but after leveling off the smoke
> turned white or disapeared as horsepower was met for flat
> rail and speed conditions.
> > Alan Lambert
>
> Alan...
>
> Assuming your description to be accurate, this is a great
> specification for a Digital Smoke System (DSS). The
> DSS should be able to adjust the smoke's color and volume
> for each speed step. More volume and more color under
> heavy load and vice versa for lesser loads. Tsunami
> already does that for the chuff-chuff volume by comparing
> the set speed step to the current actual speed step.
> And Zimo decoders have an accessory smoke generator with a
> fan which is controlled by the decoder so that individual
> puffs emanate at the rate of four per wheel
> revolution. The puffs can actually be synchronized to
> the position of the wheels via a cam on the axle.
>
> So the electronic and mechanical issues are fairly well
> solved. It is the chemistry that is not yet fully
> developed and needs improvement. If we could only add
> some color to political hot air and capture it in a pressure
> can, we might have something to use.
>
> Until a really fantastic DSS is created, my layout room will
> remain a smoke free environment for health reasons.
> But I would not mind changing that some day -- at least for
> one loop around the mainline.
>
> Cheers....Ed L.
