simple question on wiring a sound button.....

[Anonymous]

have o gauge track with a lw transformer want some sounds to work on a #604 loco for christmas morning. whistle button doesnt do much but speed up the train and brighten the lights....do I have wiring wrong or do I need a sound activation button?? I have one and want to see if it will work. is it easy to hook up? easy instructions? which post? which terminal?

Cade

[daan]

I guess your problem is not in the tranformer or the whistle button. Normally the train does speed up a bit, so your button on the transformer works. Your locomotive (if it has a whistle) reacts to that by activating a relay inside the tender, which activates a motor blowing air through a whistle shell. I guess you could take of the tender shell and see if the relay works when you activate the button. The motor uses also power, that's why your train is speeding up now. Normally that extra voltage is needed to compensate the power loss for the motor of the air whistle.

[Anonymous]

this train I have, has command sounds somebody told me, this train is farely new? I do have anolder one that has a whistle chamber in the top of its tender that doesnt work but that one is only a $20.00 set up. is there a site that I could go to that would tell me what sounds I can activate out of this new locomotive train? thanks for your quick answer daan.

Cade

[wrmcclellan]

Cade,

It is possible your LW's whistle rectifier is worn out.

What you need is a Lionel 6-5906 (Lionel P/N 610-5906-001, list price $13.00) Sound Activation Button (whistle or bell controller) which works for modern day Lionel electronics. To do the whistle and bell simultaneously you will need two of these. They would be wired in series, with either the red wires or the black wires tied together. The remaining two wires are installed with one to your hot terminal (post A or B) and the other to the track center rail. Thus pushing one button will activate the whistle and the other the bell (hold the button down for 2+ seconds to deactivate the bell).

Your local Lionel hobby shop or one of the big on-line retailers in CTT magazine - Grzybosky's, Grand Central, Trainland/Trainworld, etc.) should hopefully have these guys.

You can also order it direct from Lionel although I do not know if they could get it to you in time.

http://www.lionel.com/CustomerService/Findex.cfm

Type in 610-5906-001 to find the part.

Be aware thet the 5906 does not have a compensating voltage like the old Lionel transformers, so when you push a 5906 the train tends to slow down a little.

Let us know if we can assist further.

Regards,
Roy