Lionel 6-5906 Sound Button

[srguy]

My sound activation button simply stopped working today. Is there any way to test??? It seems like there isn't an easy way to remove the cover either.

Thoughts appreciated!!

[sir james I]

Well nobody replied...so. did you try reversing the wires to the track? Did you try to use it on more than one engine. If you have tried these two things and still nothing, then it's probably bad. Kinda unusual as for the most part they are very reliable.

[srguy]

Never changed the wirining since it worked the last time I used it. I only have 1 engine with a horn and bell ... using a KW and the horn works fine with the transformer but no bell using the sound button.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Swap the leads from the transformer and see if the bell works with the horn button on the transformer.  Maybe you're looking in the wrong place.

 

[phillyreading]

There was something on another forum about using the Lionel 6-5906 sound button. You can get only one thing at a time from the Lionel sound button, for example if you want both horn & bell, you will need to use two sound buttons; one wired in the regular way and one wired in reverse and hooked up to the same track.

For easier use, you can buy an MTH Z-1000 or an Atlas transformer with horn & bell buttons at a train show and use it instead of the two sound buttons from Lionel. Other transformers with bell & horn features may not always work!

If the engine is an older Williams with a QSI sound board; you can access only one sound at a time, the bell when at low power and the horn or whistle at high power.

Lee F.

[srguy]

I'm working off a Lionel KW which has the horn function and works just fine.  When I recently purchased a Williams FM I added the sound button to activaet the bell which worked fine for about 2 months and now it doesn't work at all. The button must be dead ... it always slowed the train a bit now there is no response at all. Are there any other sound button options??

[lionelsoni]

"My sound activation button simply stopped working today. Is there any way to test???"

Yes.  Do what gunrunnerjohn recommended:

"Swap the leads from the transformer and see if the bell works with the horn button on the transformer."

[sir james I]

Not really. the only other way would be to make one or upgrade to a newer transformer. There have been post in the past on what you would need to make one and how.

[gunrunnerjohn]

You can roll your own with a bunch of diodes and a couple of push button switches.

 

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