Whistle and bell control w/ RW .KW .ZW ?

[Anonymous]

I have a new Williams SD90 BNSF ..really beautiful... I tried it out on one of my tracks that is hooked to a RW 110 The whistle button will activate the bell, but not the diesel digital horn. The diesel engine sounds works fine. The OMS board inside works fine with the modern transformers I have , but whats the trick to make it work with the old Lionel transformers we all love, especially since I am it the market for a ZW to use on part of my layout. I dont have TMCC , just conventional block wiring with a dual control 270 Mrc on 2 tracks and 2 RW110 on the other 2 tracks. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I searched the archives but found nothing. Maybe I will need to buy the OMS sound control button.. about 60.00 ? Would I need this for every circuit on the RW , and what about a ZW would I need 4 at 60.00? What are my options.. Thanks..Tim

[ben10ben]

Switch the wires to the track, and the horn should work.

The horn and bell both rely on a DC offset in the electicity to the track for activation. The only difference is that the whistle/horn requires a positive(+) offset, and the bell a negative(-) offset. Postwar transformers are only capable of generating an offset in one direction, and, since postwar whistles aren't polarity sensitive, it doesn't matter with them. With new ones, however, polarity does matter, so reversing the wires should take care of the problem by changing the direction of the offset.

[Anonymous]

Thats great and I understand, but what I want is to have the bell and whistle work, not at the same time of course but without changing wires every time. Is this possible?... Tim

[spankybird]

What you need is a Bell Button. On my ZW, I have it only on the two cannels that have the Horn button.

It is also called a sound activation button. Lionel #5906-1. One place to purchase this is Warren’s Trains at www.wmtlionelparts.com

Their part number for this is 610-5906-1 at $15.00 each. I would get two, one for each side of the transformer. They just wire in series on the plus side, between the transformer and the track.

It’s the little black boxes next to my ZW.

tom

[Anonymous]

I had that whistle problem once with my 4-4-2. Sometimes the whistle would work, sometimes it didn't. It was until I read the directions when I figuerd out the problem, switching the polarity![:D]

What you could do is get a Kline whistle controller for this. It is seperate from the transformer. You could use the RW's controller for the bell, since you cant change the polarity on it, and use the kline controller for the whistle. (this all should work

[ChiefEagles]

Tim, I have an old RW for my temp layout. Tom's sound activation button fixed for my Williams SD 90's. Switch the leads as the center rail needs to be the +. Put the button in as Tom says and they work great. You can run two Williams lashed together nd they will run fine [just hold the direction button down good to go from forward to neutral to reverse]. If they do get "crossed up", just cut power for about 30 seconds and they both go into forward. Great pullers.

[Anonymous]

I found a sound activation button 6-5906 in some of my old stuff. I am assuming that the red wire goes to hot on transformer, then in series the black wire hooks to the wire that goes to the center rail. Do I have it right???????????

[ChiefEagles]

10-4

[Anonymous]

Actually the black wire goes to the transformer .. then through button turrs to red.. then to center rail. It works.. push once quickly for bell push and hold about 2 sec. for horn.. only problem is anytime I push button train slows noticably.. is this normal???, Or am I still doing something wrong?...Tim

[ChiefEagles]

Not mine. The bell rings only and the whistle and horn are still on the transformer. I found a diagaram from the early 80's of a way to wire your layout to prevent slowing of engines when the whistle button/lever is used. Found it in some old papers. Uses a capacitor and etc. Guess I could scan it and psot it.

[Anonymous]

Hi Chief, Could you scan that and post it or e mail to me whenever you have time? No rush.. Thanks..Tim

[spankybird]

Tim,
Let check some basics. Is you common on the transformer connected to the outside rails of the track and the Hot (+) of the transformer connected to the center rail?

I have my bell button connected with the red wire to the hot (+) of the transformer and the black wire to the center rail of the track. The common (-) of the transformer is connect to the outside rails.

The bell button only rings the bell, the transformer whistle button works only the whistle.

I do have one of the older K-line steamers that had the whistle controller that Jerry talked about. I opened the tender and revised the wires (changing the polarity) to the whistle.

This setup works for my Lionel, MTH and K-Line engines.

You may have a different type of sound button that does work both, although I didn’t know they made one like that.


tom

[ChiefEagles]

Tim [and anyone else interested], I have scanned the papers on non-slowing whistle controler. Emailing you Tim. Anyone else, email me and I'll attach. Don't think it will show up good one the forum.

[ChiefEagles]

Tim, emailed. Blow them up to read them or, better yet, print them out. My Trainmaster from K-line is conventional and the horn works better with the DCS than from transformer but still is not the greatest. Low voltage and it acts up. Operates better with an heavy train behind it so the voltage is up and the smoke works better too.

[cnw1995]

I was wondering how one would ring a bell/whistle/horn with an old R transformer - since it doesn't have anything but two throttle controls, I figure I need some sort of extra button, right? Would you recommend which one to get?

[spankybird]

Hi Dough,

Warren Model trains also list a Horn – Whistle button #-610-5904-1.
www.wmtlionelparts.com

I have never used one of these, so I can’t say how well it works.


tom

[Anonymous]

I have a 6-5906 Lionel Sound activation button hooked up ..It works but slows down the engine. Remember this is an OTT Sound board with diesel engine sound anytime power is applied to track. then when button is pushed quickly bell rings .. to turn bell off press quickly again. To sound horn hold down button. This is when horn sounds and engine slows. I wonder if the 5906-1 that Spanky is using does something different than the 6-5906 that I have ? Does anyone know? Oh well off on my search for a zw. Thanks to all for the help....Tim