lionel 8206 with mighty sound of steam problems

[the nitro man]

i got my lionel 8206 today & it looks great, runs great, & smokes great. the only thing i'm having trouble with is the mighty sound of steam. the whistle worked at first but doesn't now. stupid me took the tender apart & pecked on the sound board (lightly) & now none of the sound works. imagine that lol. does anyone make sound boards for these or can they be repaired?

 

also, is the 8206 the same size as a 2055? i'm thinking about buying one of them next.

 

thanks

[ole1]

Hello Nitro Man,

I'm not sure its the same engine but some time ago I picked up an 8305  4-4-2 with sound of steam.  The circut board had already been fried and I couldn't easily find a replacement so I went to Train America Studios and got the newer style sound unit to replace it.  It's not an inexpensive fix but the sound is great and it was not difficult to install and it chuffs and whistles trouble free. TA Studios has a lot of neat stuff so its worth checking out their website

Ole

[1688torpedo]

Hello Jerry!   You might give Train America Studios a try as they specialize in Electronic Sound Boards for Trains. They have ads in CTT & there is also QSI  which can also provide a Sound Board for you. Your Might Sound of Steam may have gone on the fritz so it may be a good idea to replace it. The 8206 is the same as a 2055 & has the same Motor, Siderods, & E-Unit. The only difference is in the Boiler Fronts & this is an example of how Lionel made many versions of the same engine over the years & how they stretched their Tooling Dollars. Hope this helps. Take Care.

[iguanaman3]

A common problem with early SOS boards is shorting out on the metal tender frame. The boards were held on with a double sticky foam that disintegrates with time, allowing the back of the board to short out. Remove the board and use new foam tape, making sure it can't short out again. Yours might be fried already but it's worth a try.

Neil

 

[chuck]

You can still get the boards:

Part No: 8102T-51

Brasseur Electric Trains of Saginaw has them:

http://www.traindoctor.com/service/lionel/lionel.asp

[brianel027]

Chuck, thanks for that info on replacement SOS boards. I didn't think they were available.

Neil is right. Those SOS locos are now over 25 years old and the foam piece in the tender that separates the board from the frame idsintegrates over time. If someone tested the loco without knowing this, they could have fried the board. This is the number one problem with these locos as far as SOS is concerned.

Pull the board loose and remove the foam and then use a piece of cardboard as a temporary insulator to see if the board still works. If so, make something that will stay in place. Electrical tape will work.

Also the wire tether could be frayed inside. The wire from the pipckup on the tender is the ground - there should be no roller pickup. The one from the loco to the tender is the hot wire. You could test the wires with a light bulb or try replacing them.

[the nitro man]

hey thanks everybody. i really didn't think i would get any help on this one.

 i pulled the board off the frame & it still doesn't work. i have a 8304 & tender that the sos works perfect. i tried the 8304's tender to the 8206 engine & it didn't work, i also tried the the 8206's tender to the 8304 engine & it didn't work. i guess the tender board is fried & the control in the engine that makes it chuff chuff is bad as well.

does the replacement board have the whistle too?

thank you all very much.

[1688torpedo]

Hello Nitro Man!   The 8304 only had the Sound of Steam & no Whistle. You would have to call Brausser's & see if they have the Circuit Board with Whistle in it to be sure they have what you want. Take Care.

[chuck]

I would recommend anyone with one of these style boards to install a sheet styrene or heavy cardboard insulator between the back of the board and the tender frame.  You can use two layers of double stick foam, one between the frame and the "insulator" and the other between the circuit board and the insulator.  Even if the foam disintegrates (which it will), the insulator will protect it.  You can also fashion a bracket to hold the board off the frame if double stick tape isn't  aesthetically  appealing.

The boards are strictly analog and you might be able to fix it with some patience and care but the cost in time/labor and parts might excede it's value.  There are versions with just chuff, and versions with chuff and whistle.  The trigger mechanism can be a VCO (voltage controlled occilator) or a mechanical/magnetic switch coupled to a cam on one of the axles on the loco or tender.

[the nitro man]

I can get a new sound board from Lionel for $42.00. It has the sound & whistle.

how could I test the board I have to try to find the bad component? i'm all for doing things myself.

 

[chuck]

Without a schematic, testing the board's components usually requires isolating them to get decent readings.  This usually means unsoldering the leads on one end and using a multimeter to check the components, piece by piece.

[ADCX Rob]

Chuck, thanks for that info...

...The wire from the pipckup on the tender is the ground - there should be no roller pickup.

The S-O-S tenders with whistle did actually require a roller pickup to provide full track power to the sound board.  The tether was, as you say, switched(by side rod/valve gear) center rail power for the S-O-S "hiss".

Rob

[Lionelking313]

A couple of months ago, I posted about this, I have 2 mint 8206 and the sound of steam and whistle work great, one came in a service station i bought a couple of years ago, and the other was purchased seperatley.  I have never heard of anyone else having examples of the 8206 that worked properly. These engines were notorious with bad static sound of steam boards.

The  steam boards that are most readily available from many big time parts dealers (Warrens, Brasseaur, etc), are the ones without the whistle. The ones available with whistle are the later version of the Sound of steam with whistle with a 3 to 5 pin plug not the single male female attachment.

The first thing you want to do with your tender is replace the old foam pad with double sided foam tape on the circuit board to the tender. Next, make sure your wires are connected to the speaker itself and the board, the wires to the roller pickup and make sure the wires are not cracked, broken, or missing any insulation. That should work. If not, please feel free to contact me. I also have several circuit boards for sound of steam and whistle, including the original ones put in the 8206 NYC Hudson and the 8304 C&O Steamer that work. These are the first issued steamers from MPC that included the New Sound  of Steam with whistle. It was soon discontinued due to several prolems, then re introduced with new electronic boards.

Again, any questions, please feel free to contact me, I would love to help

Mark

[the nitro man]

i tested the 8206 with another tender i have & the sound still didn't work.  the same tender works fine with the engine it came with though. i don't know why it wont work with the 8206. i hooked a test light up to the wire that comes out the back of the 8206 & the test light flashed just like it should. again i don't know why the other tender with sos wouldn't work.

my 8206 tender board has 3 wires & 2 speaker wires coming from it. one wire with a plug from the tender to the engine. two wires for the truck power (track hot & ground), & two speaker wires.  what would you want for a correct board?

 

thanks

[chuck]

There are multiple versions of SOS so the hookups are different.  3 wire tethers carry power and trigger from the loco to the tender (e.g. 8306-T01).  A single wire hookup USUALLY only carries trigger signal and tender requires it's own pickup roller to provide power (e.g. 8141T-8).  There is also a possible two wire hookup that transfers power to the tender but these have the trigger switch on the tender trucks.  The later does not have a circuit diagram so I can't be sure if the one lead goes to the tender truck mounted switch and the other to the power pickp from the loco and all nuetralsconnections are through the tender frame. NOTE: The power leads are sensitive to which wire gets hooked up where, aka the "hot" wire needs to go to the correct terminal on the board, you can't swap hot/neutral.

Some of the after market versions of SOS replaced the mechanical trigger with a VCO circuit (voltage controlled occilator).  These units have only four wires, two for power, two for speaker outputs, and a bunch of mini potentiometers to adjust the chuff rate based on track voltage.

[the nitro man]

lionelking313, what do you want for a correct circuit board?

[Lionelking313]

35.00. includes tender and trucks, but i dont have any extra shells

Email me if interested at [e-mail]

 

Mark

[DorkyDan]

I have one of these, but the brown wire where it enters the tender is broken.  Where can I get a DIAGRAM showing where the wires go onto the circuit board, by color?