Please forgive me as I know this may be silly question, but I really don't know. I'm preparing a layout for my son and have been picking up various cars and steam locos for his new empire. Trying to get different road names by swapping just a few cars utilizing just a couple of engines.
And of course its a requirement that the trains always make noise. So, is the whistle for the train always located in the tender? If so, then could I swap out a new modern tender with a post war version, still running conventional, and still have a whistle. ie: Use the modern polar express engine with an 1950's tender and have a whistle or vise versa. Thanks for the help.
-Larry
Yes and no. The drawbars are different on many engines and identical on others. Modern tenders and engines often have an infa red sensor or tether between the two. Lionel does make digital sound tenders that work with postwar engines.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
On some models you can swap the tenders, but make sure the hole is the same size & configuiration, like a slot or a round hole. The newer tenders may not work all the features with an older engine. Even MTH has color codes on the underside for matching a tender to a locomtive, if the colors don't match you can have electronic failure, again this is for MTH.
Lee
Thanks guys for the responses. Sounds like I may have posted my question a bit early, but I'm getting a better understanding. Reading the current thread on railsounds versus others and that is what I was basically thinking about. I did see where there are different couplers so I need to keep them compatable. As long as they couple up, sounds like I could indeed place a newer railsounds tender with a PW loco, only limited to the bell/whistle function. Lots of options...lots to learn. Thanks.
Larry
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