# New LGB Starter Set Stainz Loco won't smoke anymore.



## T&K Railways (Dec 26, 2013)

Please help. I have a new LBG Starter set and the smoke worked just fine on my Stainz Loco. I did not have to turn anything on it just worked right out of the box. I am not overfilling and I think I am adding the drops into the right place because it has worked before. But now it has stopped all of the sudden any ideas? And just to make sure does someone have any info on where to put the smoke? The instructions were not very helpful. The box says LGB 72403.

Thank you!


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

72403 is the set number. 
There is a 4 or 5 digit number on the bottom of the engine and the first digit is a 2. 
This is the real model number of the engine. 

LGB numbers have the following format for the first digit 
1 is track 
2 is engine 
3 is passenger car 
4 is freight car 
5 is power 
6 is parts 
7 is sets 
8 is ? 
9 is toytrain line(mostly green boxes) 

So, one of my sets has 20211 as the engine number.


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## stevedenver (Jan 6, 2008)

72403 is the standard stainz freight set, with a number 2 stainz, with smoke. Here are a few ideas for you:
Please don't be offended if they seem elementary, as I don't know how much you know or how much experience you have.
First , I don't know how old your set is, but some had 24 volt smokes others 18 v, and this mean the threshold voltage to achieve smoke is higher for the 24 v version. This would mean your engine, if run analog, will be going pretty fast, ie 10-15 volts, with not so much smoke.

But since it smoked and no longer does,
if you are running digital at full 24 volts, perhaps the smoke unit simply burned out. All will eventually fail, but high voltage expedites this
smoke units can wisp , sometimes imperceptibly at slow speeds and low voltage.

Or at high speed, sometimes, given the lighting you cannot see it as well.
But assuming all of this is inapplicable,
first turn it over and empty if out.

Second run it fast for about a minute or two. 
This should heat up the element. You may hear a quiet little "POP" as the element heats and the remaining smoke fluid residue, if any, is explosively expelled.

Look for smoke, if none, put in about 7 drops no more. Fluid is simply put into the unit opening at the top of the stack, no specialtrick .

Try again.
If not, empty the smoke unit and take a look at the heating element pipelette- has it been crushed deformed or otherwise damaged?
have you noticed an unusual acrid burn odor at any time, similar to an electrical type burn? this too can tell you , the smoker is on its way out or has 'exited'.

If none of the above, bite the bullet and buy a replacement. Simply attach the wires, any way will do.

If you run analog, ie regular transformer into a NON-digital, non decoder equipped stainz loco, try to find the 18 smoke units, as they smoke noticeably better at lower voltage than the 24 version.

Another potential issue, beyond my knowledge to help you with, is if the loco IS digital, you may need to reprogram or otherwise check what the smoke unit setting and parameters are.

For example , I have 3 digital LGB porters, all with factory chip settings. 

These were factory set to give the smoker full track voltage, but had 5 v smokers installed. They smoked amazingly well, at the slowest speeds, but all burned out very quickly. Not surprising. 

I have no other suggestions for you, but to pull out the unit and replace it.


FYI, the 5 volt version has black and white wires, the 18 yellow and brown, and I cant recall what the 24 v version colors are, but, I mention this so that you are aware of these indicators when buying a new one. FIW too, the 24 volts work , they just smoke weakly without high voltage. So weakly, that, imho, I might not use them on my analog locos. They are designed to take full 22-24 voltage and have the speed of the loco controlled via the decoder.
tried to reformat this so it wasn't so mashed. no luck


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