Ahh… I’m guilty of “derailing” the “train of thought”… now I get it ha ha!
Bellows is tried and true… but mechanical stuff wears… although a simple bellows probably would run as long as the old pre-war trains…
Greg
Bellows,mh where to get them ,what size any suggestions? Thanks in advance! Manfred
I remember a demo of an MTH “O” steamer at a train store.
It was chuffing the smoke out the stack in unison with the rotation of the drivers.
Maybe that part could be used.
MTH uses electronics to pulse the fan motor, and the electronics are integrated into the MTH DCS board.
It can run on DC too.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Ahh… I’m guilty of “derailing” the “train of thought”… now I get it ha ha! Greg
It’s all your fault Greg!!! 
(http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f72/Shortybear/The%20Railroad/April2010039.jpg)
You are dead right, this is a professional job. That engineer’s father was running the train below!
(http://www.elmassian.com/images/stories/track/heavyweight%20derails.jpg)
Greg
THAT is most definitely a run-through switch and then reversing.
love your smoke! just bought one and I dont see how you fit it in there? please show picture if you get a chance thanks Scott
Was just re-reading this thread and had a thought (dangerous…). If you want to follow through on a bellows type of system, you could use the bellows like is used in coo-coo clocks. they sell the replacement bellows at clock repair sites for about $4-5 each. Sometimes less.
Mechanical bellows just do not last, and take a lot of mechanics to operate. Current thinking is pulsing the fan, and modulating the smoke heating element. Several DCC decoders do this already.
Greg
Scott, you have to be willing to cut the front posts out of the boiler shell to get it in there. Expensive engine to do that to but that’s what I did. Pictures when I get a chance…deep into some other projects at the moment.
Thanks for your reply, got to think about cutting the posts out ,put in mth dcs system in my loco and works great but control board smoked ,and been awaiting a year for parts?going to put phoenix sound back in and harbor smoke generator