Horns

[Anonymous]

Hi ,
new ,first post. am not new to MRRing however.
as a kid, i had a lot of HO scale.
my main desire was always post war Lionel,
which, thanks to ebay (!), have acquired
quite a bit of ...
thot it would be nice to have some 'newer'
technology, so about a year ago, purchased
a Williams GP-9, supposedly horn equipped.
sure enough was, however a cracked tracing
on the pc board prevented operation.
replaced it with a board from the company
that supposedly supplies Williams...
i can only get intermittent operation, mainly
if i have the throttle pegged, and, even
then it is erratic. all of my connections are
soldered fine.
i have an old 2037 w/ a whistle tender and it
blows perfectly.... am using a LW 125 transformer.
i have seen elsewhere on the net that Williams horns
are 'touchy',, is this true and are there any cures ?

complete regards in advance.


happy thanksgiving !
driver8

[daan]

Hi driver 8, welcome on board! I guess if the williams sounds are not satisfying, you could use a soundunit from another brand. Most today trains are equipped with DC engines today and have an electronic e-unit, sometimes with the wistle or horn feature build in. Since all electronic cirquitry has to do the same yob in every brand of engine it is possible to swap. If it's an e-unit with sound-electronics in it, you could mount another type from another brand which also has the soundunit build in. May be you can get a cheap one from ebay or buy one at a hobby store. Be sure however that the electronics can handle the amp-rating of the motors.

[Anonymous]

My LW would not trip the horn in my modern Lionel locos even though it worked sort of "OK" with a post-war whistle tender. The rectifier disk in your LW may be too tired. You can have it replaced at a servive station, replace it yourself, or replace it with a 6 amp diode from Radio Shack. That might cure your Williams horn. The diode-equipped LW reliably toots all horns now. Had to do my KW, as well. (Replacing the original part should work just as well, too.)

Good luck.

[ChiefEagles]

Welcome. The rectifier is probably the problem. You do know that Williams will fix their trains with no problem. Call them the next time. I just had a SD90 that the reverse board was acting up. Called and they said ship. Back in 4 days.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for taking Your time to respond,
Daan, Old 2037, and ChiefEagles.
I appreciate the information.
By the way, have posted same question
on a couple of other sites, and these are
my first responses !

sincerely appreciative,

driver8

[ben10ben]

You may need to replace the rectifier disk. To test it out, hook a voltmeter up to the outputs, and set it to read DC volts. Turn the transformer power on, and your meter should read 0 volts. Press the whistle button until you first start to get a reading, and you should get 5 1/2 volts or higher, positive or negative(reverse the wires if you are using an analog meter and it moves backward). Continue to press the button all the way down, and you should finally get a reading of at least .8 volts. If either of the values that you get are lower than that, your whistle rectifier is bad, and should be replaced.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ben,

will give that a try after i replace
my finicky voltmeter.
i appreciate the straightforward info !
considering the transformer is as old as
it is, (that's what makes so much of Lionel unique!)
no surprise that it possibly needs some surgery.
Not unlike my 1974 Harley Superglide, that
has now been moved into my house for the
winter for Her operation.
Have owned the 'ol girl since 1980, and has
been 20 years since i have rebuilt the lower end.
But, being an American classic, She'll be good
to go for another 20, (hopefully i will be as well !)
i believe the bulk of our population in the U.S.A.
are still good people, this forum is an excellent example.
Thanks to all who contribute, and maintain it,
i most likely will be a frequent viewer, if not a contributor !

driver8