Required DC volt layed on AC to opoertate whistle

[Anonymous]

Chuck,

 

Thamk for the tip!  I'll find one at York.

 

Cliff

[chuck]

It's a button that has a series of diodes in it that allow you to create a DC spike on the track to trigger horn/whistle/bell functions.  Modern diodes can create a nice clean dc spike without sucking up the power the old copper oxide disk rectifiers did inside PW transformers.  On many of the higher end transformers a small booster winding was wired into the whistle circuit to compensate for the voltage drop that occured when the button was pressed on the transformer.

The sound activation button is often backed with sound cars (like tenders) in the event the owner's transformer doesn't have bell/whistle buttons.  The part number for the button is:

610-5906-001

Instructions on how to wire it in can be found at:

http://www.lionel.com/ForTheHobbyist/GeneralTipsAndFAQs/index.cfm 

[Anonymous]

Chuck,

 What is a sound activation button?

 

Cliff

[chuck]

This is the original PW ZW?  Try switching the polarity to the track and see in the newer unit starts working.  The earlier relays weren't as picky about the polarity of the spike.  There is also the possibility that the dc cutoff may not be sharp enough to trigger the whistle on the newer units.  You may need to get a sound activation button.

[Anonymous]

I have a new 4193 Lionel whistle tender with train sounds that will only chug with speed, but  the whistle will not operate using the tab on my ZW transformer. I do not have operational talk either.  I register 4 VDC with my ohm meter.  The horn on my Lionel 2023 works perfectly.  How much DC is required?

Thanks,  Cliff