I was wondering if any of you modern train wizards had any knowledge about the life expectancy of todays Lionel engine smoke units. I've had two failures on my lionchief Mikado. I know that this line of Lionel trains is the bottom of the pile but maybe someone has knowledge about this. I called Lionel and ask this question but by the time I hung up I felt I had just talked to a used car salesman. I had posted in another thread that I had a fan motor failure and bought a replacement unit. Put it in and all is well now. My first failure I had was just a few hours after I got the Mikado new and I sent the Mikado back to the retailer and they sent me another one. That fan motor failed in about 30 hours (I'm guessing here). This new unit I'm watching a logging the time. I've also got another smoke unit coming and should have that in a week or so. I'm asking for any knowledge you all may have as while I was running my New Hudson and the Mikado this morning and enjoying a fresh cup of coffee the thought that I may have a failure again right know. Then I thought that maybe your not supposed to run the engines so slow so that puff slowly. One if the things I like about the modern Lionel engines is they are really great a pulling a load slowly. The Mikado is really great at this. The Hudson not so much but does so it.

I use to have allot of MTH steamers and never had a smoke unit failure. I still have three MTH locomotives. A Hudson, Torpedo and a smoking Railking Pennsylvania F-3 ABA. They all smoke like WWII Destroyers. The Hudson is from the late 1980's the Torpedo from the mid 1990's and the F-3's from 2013. Never had a problem with the smoke units?

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Jack