Trouble with "Sound Of Steam"

[Anonymous]

Hi. I have two mid seventies engines (an 8206 Hudson and an 8203 Scout) with sound of steam tender. Neither work correctly.

The 8203 doesn't make a peep. I've checked the contact at the front of the engine (the chugger), and that's working correctly. I've touched the hot wire that normally plugs into the engine to the hot track, but still nothing. Burnt out?

The 8206 tender makes constant sound when power is applied to the track. It whistles, but I do not hear the sound of steam either.

Are these just bad electronics?

Tks,

Mike

[1688torpedo]

Hello Mike! Have you checked the solder joints and looked for frayed wires? Are the copper strips clean? If so, then the electronics may be shot. Al Cox of Seattle ,Wa may have some Leftover New original stock Circuit Boards. Do a White Page lookup for his phone number on the computer and he may be able to help you out. I recall seeing some on ebay that he was selling last spring. Good Luck.

[garyseven]

Let me get this right, your Mighty Sound of Steam "doesn't make a peep," and it is a bad thing...[;)]

[Anonymous]

The most common problem with these is deterioration of the sticky foam mounting material. As the foam "dies" the board can drop down and start shorting out on the tender frame. If the board hasn't completely shorted out, a new pice of sticky tape foam should help out. These were also analog synthesized sound boards. They may be "out of tune". If you open the unit up you will see some small variable resistors (pots) that may need adjusting to get the sounds back into the range where they belong. I used to have the OTT vesion of this board and HAD the docs around. If I can find it, I'll post a link where you can get them. If not, I'll see if I can find a site that has them on the web.

[palallin]

My 8304 is silent because of a loose wire in the connector between the tender and the harness. One of these days I will get to it.

And, yes, the silence is something of a problem: the SoS is actually decent sound.

[Anonymous]

I found the "manual". It's a lot simpler than I remember, it is also a variation of the original board. There are the "pots" that can be adjusted. Volume, chugging threshold, and max chug rate. Board was basically a white noise generator. Interupt of the white noise produced the chuff sound. If the boards are really fried I think you can still get replacements for $20-20, e.g.

http://www.traindoctor.com/Service/Lionel/8010to8200.asp

These were pretty decent litle boards and the sound quality wasn't bad, especially for the times when these originated. The whistle is also an analog ocilator circuit that does a good job of emulating and air whistle.