I purchased from my local hobby shop an old IHC sound gondola car, with plans to disect it and remount it in one of my 1:19 scale boxcars. It works by generating a "white noise" that is only played when contacts on the wheels complete the circuit. As the wheel rotates, the circuit is constantly broken and connected, making the noise appear to be a steam chuff. And, since the break in the chain corrosponds with the wheel's rotation speed, it increasees or decreases with the speed of the train. Very cool... very cheap.
It worked in the hobby store, but at the end of the project it was not working. I bought it used and very cheap, so I cannot be too sad, but since I only soldered some wires and they are all good solder joints I am at a loss. I see one spot on the board where two holes are empty, so maybe in my haste an electrical component came out.
I now want to still put sound in my boxcar, and it must be cheap, but I don't know where to turn to. There are lots of cheap sound boards from Bachmann Big Haulers, but I don't see any on EBay and don't know where else to look. I thought about looking for another one of these cars, but none are on EBay either. I want the sound to be timed if possible, and it can just be a white noise generator. I thought about finding an old AM radio and putting that inside and setting it to some non-existant channel, and then using the wheel contacts to break that.
Does anyone else have any ideas? I have tons of room in my boxcar, being a G-scale (is that term still correct) car, but I don't want to go the whole DCC decoder route. I just want something to pull behind my LGB Stainz to make some noise to please me and the wife.
Any company make cheap sound boards that would work? Anyone have an old IHC car or a Bachmann sound board they might be willing to part with for cheap.
Help!
Modeling the D&H in 1984: http://dandhcoloniemain.blogspot.com/
I have seen used Bachmann Big Hauler sound units on ebay from time to time. It is just a matter of waiting. There was also another company called, ModelTronics, that made similar sound units that show up from time to time on ebay. I got one on e-bay last winter.
Do you need this for Christmas or something else soon such that you can't wait for it to become available on e-bay? If so, write me a private message I purchased a bunch of "junk" Bachmann Big hauler locomotives last spring and some of them might have the sort of unit you are looking for.
scoobster28 wrote:Is "UNDER $20" too much to expect? When I said "cheap," I was not thinking of something costing a dollar or so.
Hey! Just saw this today in the HobbySurplus.com catalog.
IHC 0435X. $19.99. Maybe it's what you are looking for. I could not find it on their web site. It IS on the IHC web site for the same price though. http://ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=5496K9429177O876193E9HRF699959&id=4300
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
That is what I used, except mine was a different road name and not brand new. I remembered I had an old pocket radio that I got years ago and only sometimes had good reception. Last night, I chopped it up and installed it in my car. It not only produces the white static like the IHC car, but I can change frequences and get a whole range of static, from thin and whiny to thick and low. It is hard to explain, but it means I can "fine tune" it to better sound like what I want.
I put in a larger speaker in an enclosure I built from styrene. I can also adjust the volume, which is nice. It has a headphone jack, which might be interesting if I decide to mount a speaker in the engine and run a cable to the trailing boxcar. Finally, the tuner still works, so I can always just put on the football game, park the car so the connection is always made (not broken by the wheel rotations) and listen to it!
That does not mean I am not looking for a circuit to build something myself, though. Thanks for the reply Larak!
You might also want to check out "RAM Track"
http://www.ramrcandramtrack.com/
RAM 53 is a G-scale steam sound unit.