I once read about a trick to activate the old school electrol-mechanical sound devise on toy trains. You atached a DC battery to your track and when the train came to that spot it would activate the whistel/horn.My quesstion is, can you do this same trick with later electronic boards,such as Lionel Railsounds with electronic whistle/horn,or Williams TrueBlast ll.
Battery technology has changed since that trick was written up. I believe that I've read that connecting a modern battery to a layout in such a fashion could easily result in a burst battery. Whether there would be any force to the rupture is not clear to me.
It should be possible to do it safely with a series string of hefty diodes, all pointing the same way and the entire string in (anti-)parallel with a single diode pointing the other way. How many diodes is a matter for experimentation, but probably not more than a half-dozen.
Bob Nelson
I guess what I really ment to ask,not so much as the trick itself, but do you think it would damage the sound system.I understand its powerd by DC but just how much,must not be more than a couple of volts.I can see the old style set up,but the senitive electronics,thats what im wondering about; hate to blow up an ierreplaceable board.
The DC voltage component needed is quite low. Here is Lionel's specification of the whistle relay's sensitivity:
"A relay is considered satisfactory if it picks up on 1.1 volts d.c. and remains closed on .5 volts d.c. when in the presence of 10 volts a.c...."
An easier to implement solution would be to install a Whistlel shed and activate it with an insulated track when the train goes by. Thats an old Amrican Flyer trick.
Thanks guys I was just wondering if It would work with todays senitive electronics. I got whistle lever om ZW and bell button add on so I'm coverd.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month