Postwar Tender Whistle - Whistle Sounds for One Second

[NC2815N]

Hi Everyone!  New to the forumn, here.

I have a 2026 Steam engine with a 6020W tender.  The whistle blows for about one second, then stops.  I took the shell off to investigate.  I cleaned up everything (wheels, rollers, brushes, commutator, etc.).  I noticed that when I activate the whistle lever on my 1044 transformer, the whistle motor runs fine (and strong) but then the solenoid (relay?) 'drops' and separates the contact points - thus stopping the motor - after about one second.  

Has anyone seen this happen before?  Is it a bad solenoid/relay?  Trouble with the transformer?

Thanks in advance!

[TrainLarry]

With the transformer on, hook up a 9 volt battery across the center and outside rails and see if the relay picks up and holds and the whistle blows.

If the relay holds with the battery, more than likely the #1041-13 whistle rectifier in your transformer is bad and needs to be replaced.

 

Larry

[ADCX Rob]

Are you running the whistle alone or with the running train when this happens?

[Flintlock76]

Try cleaning the solenoid assembly with some electrical contact cleaner, I cured a grouchy whistle tender solenoid this way and afterward it worked fine. 

An article in "CTT" several years ago about post-war whistle tenders said that even though people may have lavished a lot of TLC on the locomotives the whistle tenders tended to be ignored, so it's not unusual for whistle tenders to have issues after so many years.

[NC2815N]

Rob - I had the tender on the track with no locomotive on the track.  I think I did have the locomotive on the track at one point, but I had the e unit locked in neutral.  Of note, I did some more testing and in the same scenario (tender alone on the track) my CW-80 transformer made the whistle work flawlessly.  

[ADCX Rob]

NC2815N

...I had the tender on the track with no locomotive on the track.  I think I did have the locomotive on the track at one point, but I had the e unit locked in neutral...  ... my CW-80 transformer made the whistle work flawlessly. 

That would point normal operation. With a postwar transformer, the design is supposed to trigger the whistle and provide a voltage boost to offset the current draw of the whistle motor, while balancing the current draw through the rectifier with the current draw through the shunt resistor. Here is the explanation of that scheme(left-click for full page view, twice to enlarge):

[lionelsoni]

NC, you are right to suspect that it is a relay and not a solenoid.

[TrainLarry]

Since the whistle operates properly with your CW-80 transformer, then the whistle rectifier is bad in your 1044 like I suspected.

 

Larry

[NC2815N]

Thanks, everyone, this is all very helpful.  I think we've limited the culprits to either the rectifier in my 1044 transformer or a finicky relay in the whistle tender - or both.  I've done some more troubleshooting, and here is what I have found - which is interesting and I would appreciate any insights:

- Originally, the 1044 transformer would only blow my postwar tender for one second - with the tender alone on the track.

- My CW-80 blows the postwar whistle flawlessly - pointing to a bad rectifier in the 1044 transformer.  But....

- When I use my 1044 transformer to blow the whistle on my 1990 Lionel/MTH Standarg guage 390E (with train standing still), the 1044 blows that whistle flawlessly.  Are the 90's era whistles just more forgiving and/or do they require less current such that the 1044 is able to operate the whistle?

Either way, all is good for now, I have the CW-80 running my postwar train and the 1044 running my 90's era 390E - with all whistles operating properly.  I may still try to replace the 1044 rectifier with a diode and swap out the relay in the postwar whistle tender some day - to see if that helps.

Thanks again!