Trainsounds, Railsounds, puffing and fan smokers help

[Anonymous]

Ok I am new. new to lionel at least. I had well still have loads of marklin form childhood.

 But here is my question. I bought my son a Polar express starter set for X mas. I am already looking to upgrade it. I see I can get a trainsounds tender. But I can buy railsounds and intall myself for about the same price. but I is one better than the other? Which sounds better. If I go for a trainsounds version I can get a generic lionel tender off e bay for much less than the  PE tender and just put the electronics in the PE tender. But if railsounds is the way to go. I need to know that.

 Also I wish to upgrade the smoker. I see video's on youtube of these great smoking engins. I want ours to have smoke like that. From what I have learned is that my engine has a puffer and the engines that have the great smoke are fan operated units. But how do the fan operated units operated. are they cordinated so they still look like they puff. but there is alot more smoke than my engine is putting out. Can I retro fit the PE to a upgraded smoke unit? which brand might be sugested.

 

Thanks for any info

[challenger3980]

Hi sinkinpat,

   I have locomotives with each of the sound systems, Rail Sounds is definitely the better system of the two. The main difference that I know of between them is that Rail Sounds is a sound on sound system, Train Sounds is a single sound system.

   With Rail Sounds, You will always have the chuff while the engine is moving, ring the bell and it will ring with the chuff still active, then blow the whistle, and you can still hear the bell ringing under it, while the locomotive still chuffs.

   With Train Sounds, you will get the chuff while the locomotive is moving, then ring the bell and it will override the chuff, all you will hear is the bell, if you blow the whistle with the bell ringing it will override the bell, let off the whistle, and it will resume ringing the bell, cancel the bell and it will return to the chuffing. The whistle is the predominant sound, it will override the chuff or bell as long as the whistle button is pushed then resume chuff or bell as it was before whistleing.

   As far as upgrading the smoke unit, I can't give You any info on doing it, but be careful what you wish for as the old saying goes. Most of my Lionel's are satisfactory smokers, though many MTH locomotives will out smoke them. This is where you need to be careful about what you wish for. My MTH locomotives will smoke to the point of being annoying, the Carpet sub-division of my Christmas Tree, Carpet & Western is in a small bedroom that is about 10x11, and the MTH locomotives can smoke you out of the room. Give them 10, maybe 15 minutes of running and the room looks like a bar room before the indoor smoking bans  happened, makes me appreciate my Lionel's, the smoke is adequate, but not overwhelming.

   A little off topic, but you seem new, and I want to help you avoid future headaches, if you get ANY MTH LOCOMOTIVE WITH ANY SOUND SYSTEM, DO NOT LET THE BATTERY GET WEAK.  A weak battery in a Proto-Sound (commonly refered to as Proto-sound 1, or PS-1) or Proto-Sound 2(commonly refered to as PS-2) equipped locomtive CAN/WIL give you untold grief, it can scramble the control chips programming, there is a kit available to repair this, (better to just avoid the problem) but I haven't used it, and can't comment on it. Or the Locomotive will have to go back to MTH, which when this happened to mine, it took 7-9 months to get it back from them. The Loco-Sounds system,(generally found in older MTH locomotives) does not have any control functions as far as I know, but I don't have any, may not have this problem. I have heard this is just a PS-1 problem, and I have heard others say it is just a PS-2 thing, I prsonally have had trouble with BOTH systems, bottom line, DON'T LET THOSE BATTERIES GET WEAK, you may regret it.

  Model Railroading is a GREAT hobby and the Toy Train side of especially so, so Hopefully you will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

                        May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails,

                                                               Doug

[Kooljock1]

As Doug said: go with RailSounds! I just got RailSounds 5.0 and it is spectacular, but the other versions are all way-better than TrainSounds too.

As far as your smoke unit: chances are you won't be able to squeeze a fan-driven unit into that space. To improve your smoke out-put:

1. Remove the shell.

2. Pry the units cap/resistor assembly up off the unit's "bowl". Inside you will find scorched wicking material, and depending on how old the unit is, a scorched fibre-glass sleeve on the heating element. Carefully remove both of these without damaging the element.

3. Sneak into the attic, and swipe a pinch of fibre-glass insulation. It can be pink or yellow, doesn't matter.

4. Pack this into the bowl, being careful not to plug the air holes.

5. Soak the new packing with "J.T.'s MegaSteam" of your scent choice.

6. Reassemble and stand back!

This is how the Polar Express trains that smoke well are done. I did one of these yesterday, and the whole project took about 20 minutes, including getting the ladder out to climb through the hole into the attic.

Jon

[USNRol]

As Doug said: go with RailSounds! I just got RailSounds 5.0 and it is spectacular, but the other versions are all way-better than TrainSounds too.

As far as your smoke unit: chances are you won't be able to squeeze a fan-driven unit into that space. To improve your smoke out-put:

1. Remove the shell.

2. Pry the units cap/resistor assembly up off the unit's "bowl". Inside you will find scorched wicking material, and depending on how old the unit is, a scorched fibre-glass sleeve on the heating element. Carefully remove both of these without damaging the element.

3. Sneak into the attic, and swipe a pinch of fibre-glass insulation. It can be pink or yellow, doesn't matter.

4. Pack this into the bowl, being careful not to plug the air holes.

5. Soak the new packing with "J.T.'s MegaSteam" of your scent choice.

6. Reassemble and stand back!

This is how the Polar Express trains that smoke well are done. I did one of these yesterday, and the whole project took about 20 minutes, including getting the ladder out to climb through the hole into the attic.

Jon

I second the above....DO'nt even think about MODing your PE smoke unit until you've tried the above.

Roland

[dmestan]

Hi guys, quick question - the sleeve on the heating element is not replaced?  So what you end up with is the bare element on fiberglass insulation, correct?

Also, can I do the same with my PW pill type smoke unit?  With the new packed fiberglass insulation can I still use smoke pills, or should I now use fluid only?

 thx, Don

[Jumijo]

Hi guys, quick question - the sleeve on the heating element is not replaced?  So what you end up with is the bare element on fiberglass insulation, correct?

That is correct.

Also, can I do the same with my PW pill type smoke unit?  With the new packed fiberglass insulation can I still use smoke pills, or should I now use fluid only?

I only use fluid in mine. Pills turn into fluid when heated...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice on the sounds.

 I will go the railsounds route. One thing though. The railsounds unit states it does not have brake noise and comunication noise when operated with a conventional controller. where the trains sounds said it has these features. will these be missed?

 as for the smoker. I don't have the reccomended fluid yet. Still using the lionel brand, that gives my wife a headache. I plan on ordering some. When I was a kid 20 or so years ago, I had a pine scent that would bring back great memorys. also some of the scents that would match the holidays would be good.

As for the smoker, I would love to have tons of smoke. but I will try the fluid first.

 Last night I tried the mod. It is a new unit and didn't have the mentioned sock. also the fiberglass from the attic semed to melt onto the heating element. So I went back to the supplied fiberglass. I will try tiki torch fiberglass later today.

Thanks for the info.

Pat

[mpzpw3]

I have two older Lionel railsound tenders. One in a die-cast shell, and one in a plastic shell. The die-cast sounds better, but anyway... Both have "generic" sounds, chuffing, whistle, bell, and very annoying sqealing breaks. If left powered up in neutral, they both have some generic communication between the engineer and someone else. Neither one requires TMCC. Perhaps you need to look for some add-on railsounds tenders from about 4-5 years ago.