Lionel Solid State Whistle Relay?

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

Additional datum:  I did a temporary transplant of the PCB from my Hogwarts Express (same board, but gets a louder sound in the HE tender).  The whistle works but still sounds anemic.  Wonder if they use different, slower motors in the Pennsylvania, etc. tenders, or some other means of quietening?  But if that were the case, why publish a 'fix' for it (which, apparently, doesn't work too good)?

Mitch

[Jark K. Remol]

I've had the same issue with a fairly new PRR tender. Not sure the stock number since it was a secondhand orphan. Tried to bypass resistor but didn't work.

I also noticed that the PCB in my tender was not the same one in the Lionel instructions. The trick they posted may not work on this tender. I'm not electronically savy enough to read the PCB to find a different option.

I'd be glad to hear if any has more suggestions.

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

ADCX Rob

Try the bell button.

Worth a shot!  (tries) No soap, alas. 

Mitch

[ADCX Rob]

Try the bell button.

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

ADCX Rob

You are not supposed to simply remove the resistor.

Jumper around it, or if you do remove it, replace it with a wire jumper.

Yep! Which is precisely what I did.  As per the instructions, I clipped the resistor and jumpered it exactly as shown.  I've also checked the connection and there's no open circuit there, and the circuit is good from the motor contact, down the blue wire, through the jumper and back to the previous component. 

I'm stumped.  Could one of the other components be bad? 

Mitch

[ADCX Rob]

You are not supposed to simply remove the resistor.

Jumper around it, or if you do remove it, replace it with a wire jumper.

Here is Lionel's explanation for the quiet whistle:

watch?v=pO24Na614DE

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

I'm working on a 249 50th Anniversary Pennsy loco tender, and the whistle is, to put it charitably, anemic.  So, while poking about the Lionel site, I ran across this:

http://www.lionel.com/CustomerService/service-documents/download.cfm?file=6336Startersetwhistlevolumefix.pdf

Seemed simple enough, remove a pesky resistor and the whistle gets louder. 

No soap.  I snipped out the resistor, and now the durn thing is deader than a doornail.  I've resoldered all the connections on the PCB, and used a multimeter to make sure there's no open circuit between the former resistor and the output power to the motor (which is working fine when I throw DC power to the contacts).

Any suggestions? 

Thanks!

Mitch