One of my early purchases was a Lionel GP20 circa 1986 with dual motors, lights but no horn. Is there a simple and inexpensive way to add a horn to this engine??
The simple & straightforward solution, with bell included, would be THIS.
Rob
I purchased a Lionel boxcar with trainsounds to resolve lack of horn in an MPC engine. More expensive solution but they have made them in various road names so it may be something else to look into.
Another option you could look into is a company called the Electric Railroad Co. There website is www.electricrr.com they have a wide variety of sound boards that are alittle more expensive then the True Blast 2 sound board; but i have heard good things from this company and they are relatively easy to install. Hope it all works out no matter what you decide to do.
ADCX Rob The simple & straightforward solution, with bell included, would be THIS.
I agree with Rob on that. The True Blast 2 horn by Williams is very easy to install, two wires and a place to mount it, and costs only two/thirds the price of a horn unit by ERR.
Lee F.
phillyreading ADCX Rob: The simple & straightforward solution, with bell included, would be THIS. I agree with Rob on that. The True Blast 2 horn by Williams is very easy to install, two wires and a place to mount it, and costs only two/thirds the price of a horn unit by ERR. Lee F.
ADCX Rob: The simple & straightforward solution, with bell included, would be THIS.
Yes but your stuck with the horn blast for a crossing you have no control over the horn its cut and dry I believe its 2 long a short and another long blast yes it a nice simple set up but as I said you have no control over how many blast you do and if there long or short.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
contact jeff at www.ttender.com and see what he might have that you could put in there and how much you never know he might have a lionel board for sound and a speaker for cheap.
Will the Williams unit fit in a Lionel GP20?? I didn't check the dimensions but it looks like it would be tough to fit in. Has anyone installed a Williams unit in a Lionel GP??
It depends on your definition of "fit".
You can make it fit, but it is not designed to be strictly plug-n-play.
Lionel/MPC put the horns in the GP20 and U-36B in the dummies, with the speaker facing upward in the cab floor. Fundimensions eventually modified the frames to put the speaker in the fuel tank of the powered unit, where the battery would be in a postwar diesel. The 8477 GP9 was built this way.
With your dual-motored unit, the motors must be in the trucks below the floor/frame. There should be plenty of room inside to mount the electronics, and probably the speaker too.
The board will fit, but the speaker that Williams supplies is too big, you'll have to find an alternative. I have a smaller one that came with one of my ERR sound installations, it fits in a GP-9 just fine.
How loud is the horn? Does it depend on the volatge of the track? I already have a good idea by putting a smallish'd size building with the speaker facing outward.
If your talking about the williams I don't believe that voltage has a lot to do with it as long as you have at least 5 -7 volts I would think. Although how loud not real loud but not quiet either are you going to put towards say the front 4 feet of your layout should be loud enough. as my other comments you can see i'm not a big fan of it. I would of loved it if it was just a straight horn sound and you had controll of how many blast and how long each blast. I have put tmcc in one of my Williams so far with train sounds ( now that wasn't very loud but loud enough, next conversion wll definitely have railsounds much louder) Now if you contact boxcar bill at http://mttponline.com/ he might be able to come up with something also.
Another possibility is the Sounder by MRC. This has prime mover sounds, in addition to horn and bell, which are activated from the transformer, similar to Railsounds. They also sell a separate transmitter with buttons that will allow you to access coupling, brake release and dynamic brake sounds.
The instructions for this one note that soldering is required to install.
I have not used one of these myself, but I'm getting ready to upgrade an MPC F3 belonging to my father, and this is what I intend to do it with: right now they are selling them for $23, and it's pretty hard to argue with that.
Anyone put a trueblast steam into a 2046 lionel tender?
Tom
I haven't done that, but it should be a piece of cake to install the True Blast in a tender as long as the tender has a center-rail pickup. Wire to the pickup and frame, connect the speaker, put the shell on.
Except, if the tender does not already have a whistle, it probably does not have a 3rd rail pickup. In that case, you can run one wire up into the locomotive, and solder it to the e-unit lug (easy to find--several other things are already soldered there). Of course, then your engine and tender are permanently tethered--tho you could probably put some kind of little plug connector inline between the engine and tender.
Anyway of showing me with pictures how you connect the trueblast to the engine? Thanks.
what engine do you want to add it to
charlesp54 Anyway of showing me with pictures how you connect the trueblast to the engine? Thanks.
Thank you.
Back in the 80s I bought a Lionel horn kit and added it to my GP9. The sound was not that great. Since I started using it in the last 6 years it started short bursts of going off by itself and sounded horrible. I removed it in the last year.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Boyd Back in the 80s I bought a Lionel horn kit and added it to my GP9. The sound was not that great.
Back in the 80s I bought a Lionel horn kit and added it to my GP9. The sound was not that great.
Yes if you like a set sequence. also many have made comment where they have trouble with it with some of Lionel transformers especially post war and I think but may be wrong CW-80 also.
rtraincollector Yes if you like a set sequence. also many have made comment where they have trouble with it with some of Lionel transformers especially post war and I think but may be wrong CW-80 also.
If you're looking for a fancier horn, you may want to consider Command/control. My Legacy locomotives have a lot more control over the horn tone, they also cost a lot more.
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