OK I have a new idea on this annoying sounds of steam board. Is it feasible to just eliminate the board and install a Bachman Tru blast II steam board? My question is are the leads from the loco positive and negative? If so I should be able to just hook the wires to the Bachman board and go with it or is it not that simple with this setup? I have installed a few of these Bachman units in my hornless diesels and they work great. I am a bit apprehensive about this sounds of steam because I do not quite know how the wiring to the tender works. I really want to keep the 6 wheel tender with this engine but do not want to just start ripping and cutting without some input. Would I be able to eliminate the Bachman speaker and hook into the existing Lionel speaker. Thanks for any help.
All you need is a center rail wire from the engine and make a ground on the tender and you'd be all set. Just leave the SOS engine wires as is.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Yep all you need is a center rail pickup and your good to go. I do not see any reason why you could not reuse the Lionel speaker.
The 1970s Sound of Steam locomotives have a switch on the smoke unit that completes a ground circuit, The chuff sound is triggered by the switch in the smoke unit & hooks to the board in the tender with the exposed wire & plug (between the loco & tender) The circuit board in the tender draws its power from the center rail, I would imagine you could use the same power wires and chuff switch wire if the bachmann unit is wired the same way.
I'm not sure of the body shell on the tender the GN loco comes with but I fixed a broken / missing sound of steam setup in my 8801 Blue Comet by replacing the entire tender chassis with a Lionel 6-16655 sound tender chassis.
I know the early 1990s railsounds are not as nice as the modern stuff but it is a good upgrade from the 1970s sound of static. My tender had a 1950s air whistle badly installed in it when I got it.
I was able to replace broken trucks, add basic whistle, chuff & bell sounds and fix a hacked & butchered tender chassis in one shot. I was considering a Dallee sound system but the cost was about the same as the lionel tender with a good chassis. I wanted to keep some of the "early style sound unit" in this 1970s engine.
Some Lionel sound tenders here for sale http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=LIONEL+16655+STEAM+TENDER+RAILSOUNDS+NIB
I dont know how the new Bachmann steam units sound compared to the older Lionel boards. Anyone have a sample of the sounds? Are they super realistic? I might consider using one next time I fix up a "parts box junker" locomotive. What does the bachmann unit cost?
-Jason
The Bachman/Williams SOS board does not chuff so the chuff lead would go unused, You will get bell and whistle only, To get the bell sound you will need to be using a newer transformer with a bell button or a reverse wired sound button.
OK thanks for the info. I put a voltmeter on the insulated engine lead and that one gives 0-12 volts depending on the engine speed. The spade lead seems to be a ground. Is this the correct lead to use or do I need to solder another wire to the roller pickup on the engine?
kpbart OK thanks for the info. I put a voltmeter on the insulated engine lead and that one gives 0-12 volts depending on the engine speed. The spade lead seems to be a ground. Is this the correct lead to use or do I need to solder another wire to the roller pickup on the engine?
From what I have seen in online photos the 3100 (nice loco!) it has 1 axle wiper ground to the outside rails on the tender truck and no center pick up rollers on the tender...is this how yours is?
I think the loco's center rail power pick up rollers run to the chuff chuff trigger switch and then to the exposed wire between the loco & tender, if that's the case and the williams unit definitely has no chuff chuff you will need to find a way to make it a constant track power voltage source by bypassing the chuff switch on the smoke unit .
You could avoid messing with the loco by adding center rail pickup rollers on to to the tender, maybe by swapping the tender trucks for 6 wheel MPC era passenger car trucks or taking the pickup roller parts off of an extra set of trucks would be easiest way to get track power & ground to the tender. A plus would be dual pick up rollers and dual grounds on the truck axles would prevent issues with sound dropping out through crossings or turnouts.
You could then remove the unused sound wires totally from the back loco if your comfortable taking it apart and putting it back together or tuck them out of the way and insulate the ends.
If you do a search for lionel 9500 series passenenger cars I know the blue comet cars and some others used the same style 6 wheel trucks with longer couplers. A little creativity and mixing & matching might make up a set of 6 wheel trucks with the proper pickup & grounds.
Here is a link to several Lionel service documents on your engine (scroll down)
They are PDF files
http://www.lionel.com/customerservice/service-documents/index.cfm?type=supplement&doAction=search&product=3100&productNumber=
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