American Flyer smoke loco's?

[Joetrain59]

My early childhood memories were of an AF layout my Dad built. This would be very early sixties. I think only 1 of 2 steamers had the smoke function.
  We used the purple LifeLike fluid. How does this work, to create "smoke"?
 And was that stuff toxic? Later, as a pre-teen, my friend Dave and I would shut the doors to that room, and run that loco till their
  was a haze in the air!
 Joe D

[arbomambo]

How does this relate to N scale?

[Joetrain59]

Product discussion part of the board. ANY SCALE. Read it yourself.
 Joe D

[Sokramiketes]

My early childhood memories were of an AF layout my Dad built. This would be very early sixties. I think only 1 of 2 steamers had the smoke function.
  We used the purple LifeLike fluid. How does this work, to create "smoke"?
 And was that stuff toxic? Later, as a pre-teen, my friend Dave and I would shut the doors to that room, and run that loco till their
  was a haze in the air!
 Joe D

Shouldn't have been toxic.  Assuming you were running American Flyer S Gauge, there was a wick and heating element under the smoke stack.  The smoke effect was just heating the fluid to a gaseous state, and pumping it out via a mechanism that also gave a decent "chuff" sound. 

[Albert in N]

The original AC Gilbert American Flyer smoke had a pine scent.  There is an American Flyer S gauge train group in the Dallas area that usually shows up in DFW train shows with a nice operating layout.  The old American Flyer locomotives still put out a lot of smoke on their layout and still smells like pine scented mineral oil.  I don't have any idea what AC Gilbert used for smoke fluid, but it must not have been too toxic.  Their track cleaning fluid was light blue and smelled like kerosene.  My first train set at age 7 was American Flyer S gauge and I ran American Flyer trains until age 21.  At age 71, I am still here, but enjoying N scale.  By the way, N scale is two rail same as American Flyer S gauge.  Maybe I sound redundant saying S gauge, but American Flyer made a lot of three rail O gauge prior to World War II.

[peteski]

I assume that the smoke generators in any scale work the same way (I only dealt with the smaller SEUTHE units).  These have a heater element inside which vaporizes the smoke fluid (which is some sort of an oil).  If you use it a lot, the "smoke" settles on the surroundings resulting in an oily coating which attracts dirt.

When I was a kid I also enjoyed smoking models of stream locos, but nowadays I wouldn't be caught dead using one of those on a layout.

[Albert in N]

Who knows, but some vape shop may have pine scent fluid that smells like American Flyer smoke.  Frankly, I feel safer watching vintage American Flyer steam locos puffing up a haze.  I agree that I don't want smoke around my N layout (attracts dust), but it is OK at train shows and with larger scales.  N scale is small and more susceptible to dust or anything that covers the rails.  Remember N notes 9 millimeters between the rails.

[Joetrain59]

I believe my sister has the family 8mm movie reels. Know there should be some of this layout on it, with that smoker. Think it was a Pacific? Don't remember road name.
 Thanks, Gents.
 Joe D

[peteski]

Here is some more info on how these work. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091129202906AAaieAp

[Sokramiketes]

The original AC Gilbert American Flyer smoke had a pine scent.  There is an American Flyer S gauge train group in the Dallas area that usually shows up in DFW train shows with a nice operating layout.  The old American Flyer locomotives still put out a lot of smoke on their layout and still smells like pine scented mineral oil.  I don't have any idea what AC Gilbert used for smoke fluid, but it must not have been too toxic.  Their track cleaning fluid was light blue and smelled like kerosene.  My first train set at age 7 was American Flyer S gauge and I ran American Flyer trains until age 21.  At age 71, I am still here, but enjoying N scale.  By the way, N scale is two rail same as American Flyer S gauge.  Maybe I sound redundant saying S gauge, but American Flyer made a lot of three rail O gauge prior to World War II.

Pine or Cedar originally?

[Albert in N]

Probably cedar since I don't recall it being as pungent as Pine-Sol.  I can remember using straight pins to puncture the tip of the soft smoke refill ampule, plus recall the cost of a carton of twelve (or so) wiped out a week's allowance and then some.  Later exposures to Flyer operations at train shows and a hobby shop smelled like Lionel smoke oil.  After opening my heirloom cedar wardrobe, the cedar does bring back memories of my American Flyer 4-4-2 Reading atlantic, 4-6-2 Pennsy K-5, and Franklin 4-4-0 American.   Unfortunately my American Flyer stuff was traded off in the late 1960s when the HO bug bit me, then came N scale.

[Sokramiketes]

Ok good, I've been using the cedar scented SuperSmoke in my Flyer, thought it was correct!