AF Whistling Billboard

[trainsintheattic]

Thank you.  Good advice and info. Much appreciate!

[phillyreading]

I had an A.F. whistling billboard a few years ago. One wire goes to the frame or is a common and the other two wires; one supplies the light bulbs and one goes to the whistle motor. "DO NOT USE" the 'whistle control' from a Lionel transformer via the track as the A.F. whistle is straight wired to run when power is supplied to the motor unit. In plain English if you supply power to the whistle motor it works, no relay needed for this motor to work, so a momentary switch like a doorbell switch, for a house, will work for this unit.

[trainsintheattic]

Thank you!  Worked great.  Very much appreciate.

[lionelsoni]

No track involvement is necessary.  You can power the billboard from the A and C terminals of the 1033.  Connect one billboard wire to one control-box terminal.  Connect the other billboard wire to the A terminal.  Connect the other control-box terminal to the C terminal.

If you happen already to have the 1033's A terminal connected to the outside rails of your track (or are willing to swap connections to effect this), you do not have to run a wire from the billboard all the way back to the transformer.  You can just connect the billboard wire to the outside rail wherever the track passes conveniently close to the billboard.

I don't have a 566 here to look at.  But one of the billboard wires may be connected to the frame of the billboard.  If that is the case with your 566, that would be the better wire to connect to the A terminal or to the outside rails.

[trainsintheattic]

I have an opportunity to buy an American Flyer 566 Whistling Billboard in quite nice working condition. But I have zero experience with American Flyer --- zip, nada --- I'm all Lionel. That said, one of my train loops features my dearly departed grandfather's Lionel 260E and since its 260T tender had no whistle, I thought it could make for a fun addition. Very simply, is this doable? My wiring skills are pretty basic. What I'd like is for the AF billboard to be activated directly from my Lionel 1033 transformer --- just push the AF whistle control button and the whistle activates. Can this be wired accordingly, directly, without any track involvement for power? Or does the two rail AF powering come into play? And if so, how do I wire to make my Lionel pre-war three rail O gauge track comply to make the AF two rail whistle blow? If a wiring diagram could be available, that would be most appreciated and thank you!