Once you've checked the three pieces for fit, CA the flat portion of the spacer block to the bottom of the smoke unit just to the rear of the fan. CA the half round surface of the spacer and place the spacer with smoke unit attached into the smoke box. Position so that the unit's hole that emits smoke is centered under the smoke stack hole in the smoke box. Insert the brass tube down into the smoke unit and be sure the ¼" of the 9/32" piece seats all the way into the smoke unit. The brass tube should end up centered in the hole in the smoke box. Hold in place till the CA sets. Install the smoke stack. You will have to remove the smoke on/off switch from the smoke box front. There is not enough clearance to get the front back on with the switch in place. The switch is not necessary since the Aristo unit will shut down when out of fluid. Keep the paired wires separated. Remembering that the headlight is fed from this same switch. Solder the smoke box wires to the feed wires that serviced the smoke unit and headlight. Connect red smoke box wire to the positive red wire that feeds the headlight wire, keeping in mind that the headlight illuminates only when the engine is running forward. Solder the white smoke unit wire to the black wire that feeds the other headlight wire. Tape or shrink-wrap the wires. Stuff the wires into the smoke box. BE CAREFUL NOT TO LET ANY WIRES GET UNDER THE NEW SMOKE UNIT AND FOUL THE FAN! Install the smoke box front and the stack if it was not installed previously. The unit has only been tested for a little over 4 hours. The Aristo smoke unit operates in the 8 -24 volt range. With the GN pulling 10 cars and running at 20 scale MPH (with the speedometer car set for 1:20.3 scale) it puts out a steady stream of smoke. Never had a B'mann smoke like this at that speed. Couple of things yet to do. First is to make a spacer sleeve to go around the brass tube up near the top of the smoke stack. This will help keep the brass tube centered in the stack and serve to assist in locking the smoke unit in place. The fan really puts out too much air. Will experiment with blocking part of the fan on the intake (bottom) side to reduce airflow. This should give even heavier smoke without such a high velocity of the smoke coming out the stack. While this unit does not equal the MTH units for volume of smoke it sure beats anything that B'mann has had to date. And you don't need to run the engine at MAC-1 to get the smoke unit to produce smoke. Never was one for smoke, but these new Aristo units may just change my mind. Next on tap will be the ET&WNC "Annie." Any questions e-mail me at jlsrails@aol.com and I'll try to answer your questions. Bob and I will continue to experiment with this unit. It's potential looks good for installation in other engines. |
Tips |
Once you've checked the three pieces for fit, CA the flat portion of the spacer block to the bottom of the smoke unit just to the rear of the fan. CA the half round surface of the spacer and place the spacer with smoke unit attached into the smoke box. Position so that the unit's hole that emits smoke is centered under the smoke stack hole in the smoke box. Insert the brass tube down into the smoke unit and be sure the ¼" of the 9/32" piece seats all the way into the smoke unit. The brass tube should end up centered in the hole in the smoke box. Hold in place till the CA sets. Install the smoke stack. You will have to remove the smoke on/off switch from the smoke box front. There is not enough clearance to get the front back on with the switch in place. The switch is not necessary since the Aristo unit will shut down when out of fluid. Keep the paired wires separated. Remembering that the headlight is fed from this same switch. Solder the smoke box wires to the feed wires that serviced the smoke unit and headlight. Connect red smoke box wire to the positive red wire that feeds the headlight wire, keeping in mind that the headlight illuminates only when the engine is running forward. Solder the white smoke unit wire to the black wire that feeds the other headlight wire. Tape or shrink-wrap the wires. Stuff the wires into the smoke box. BE CAREFUL NOT TO LET ANY WIRES GET UNDER THE NEW SMOKE UNIT AND FOUL THE FAN! Install the smoke box front and the stack if it was not installed previously. The unit has only been tested for a little over 4 hours. The Aristo smoke unit operates in the 8 -24 volt range. With the GN pulling 10 cars and running at 20 scale MPH (with the speedometer car set for 1:20.3 scale) it puts out a steady stream of smoke. Never had a B'mann smoke like this at that speed. Couple of things yet to do. First is to make a spacer sleeve to go around the brass tube up near the top of the smoke stack. This will help keep the brass tube centered in the stack and serve to assist in locking the smoke unit in place. The fan really puts out too much air. Will experiment with blocking part of the fan on the intake (bottom) side to reduce airflow. This should give even heavier smoke without such a high velocity of the smoke coming out the stack. While this unit does not equal the MTH units for volume of smoke it sure beats anything that B'mann has had to date. And you don't need to run the engine at MAC-1 to get the smoke unit to produce smoke. Never was one for smoke, but these new Aristo units may just change my mind. Next on tap will be the ET&WNC "Annie." Any questions e-mail me at jlsrails@aol.com and I'll try to answer your questions. Bob and I will continue to experiment with this unit. It's potential looks good for installation in other engines. |
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ARISTO ART 29311 SMOKE UNIT INSTALLATION IN BACHMANN 10-WHEELER BIG HAULER (BY BOB "SPARKY " MAISEY & JON MILLER) Credit for the initial work of making the parts and bench testing the installation of an Aristo ART 29311 Smoke Unit goes to Bob "Sparky" Maisey. Bob dropped of the parts and explained his concept to me. Trippe Hammer, CD&StL's Master Mechanic and the shop crew went to work and installed the first unit in a GN Big Hauler as a test engine. First you'll need an Aristo ART 29311 smoke unit. That's the new unit with a fan, circuit board, and wiring harness. A 2" long piece of 5/16" OD brass tube. A ½" piece of 9/32 OD brass tube. A small wooden block or similar material. Sol-Zap CA, soldering iron and a few hand tools. |
The model chosen is the Bachmann, Chattanooga Choo-Choo. This engine is considered to be a Gen 5 unit. These were available at Costco, Christmas 2000. |
Start by placing the ½" piece of brass tube ¼" into the 5/16" brass tube. Leave the other ¼" protruding and solder the two pieces together. This set up is for a B'mann GN and should work with the larger stacks found on Big Haulers. Remove the smoke box front {Fig. 2}. Remove the B'mann smoke unit. Rather than take the engine apart to get at the smoke unit mounting screws, I took a large flat blade screwdriver and broke the smoke unit from the plastic mounting lugs. Not difficult! Unsolder the smoke unit wires from the switch mounted to the front of the smoke box. Take your block of wood or other material and form it in a half circle that fits the inside curvature of the smoke box. The top of this mounting block should be flat and about 1/3 the height of the smoke box. What you end up with is a little less than a half circle mounting piece. The width of the mounting piece should be the width of the bottom of the Aristo smoke unit from just behind the fan to the back of the unit. Place the mounting block and smoke unit into the smoke box to check for fit. The brass tube with the reduced end should fit down through the smoke stack hole into the Aristo smoke unit opening. The ¼" length of 9/32" in the end of the tube will be an interference fit yet will not go so far into the unit as to come in contact with the wick. |
{Fig. 2} Prying the front end off is not that difficult. There are two clips at the top and bottom. Use a very thin bladed screwdriver and carefully pry off the front. |
This page was last updated on: July 27, 2002
