Bob,

To add the newer horn unit, the True Blast 2, all you have to do is supply power from the center rail pick-up and the outside rail pick-up or frame of the engine. Make sure you get power before the circuit board for the center rail, like straight from the roller assembly, or your horn unit may only work in one direction.
If you have room under the shell, the T.B.2 will usually work well.

Are you familier with parallel wiring? If so wire the horn unit in parallel with the center rail power. The frames on most engines if they are metal will give a good place for the negative wire to get power from.

In my opion True Blast 2 sounds better than most other horn systems. I even put a T.B. 2 into a Lionel diesel engine that had a simple horn sound.

Lee F.

Joe S.

I don't know for sure what caused the problem with my lighted Lionel caboose, the plastic melted around the center roller, guess it had tooo much free play or movement. I am staying away from newer Lionel as I keep having problems with the new stuff.

Another problem I have is with the Lionel 6-23010 O gauge switches; none of my Williams(before Bachmann) engines can make it through one of those switches!! Also the same switch loses power to the track intermitantly, acts like a flashing unit is inside the switch connected to the center rail power. I called Lionel and their reply was ""WE" never heard of any problems with this switch".
Williams customer service department(about four years ago, when it was only Williams) told me to "Get rid of those Lionel switches! They(the 23010's & 23011's) are flawed in design."

Lee F.

I think the Reading F unit is an FP-9, one of the later diesel engines in the Reading Lines roster.

Lee F.

Quote from: DominicMazoch on June 19, 2010, 10:19:34 AM
Well, I can get 3 of WBB's from Marty's MA and PA for the price of one L or M electronic engines.  And WBB don't seem to go into Gomez Addams mode:  Move 6 feet, click, click, blow up!

To add to the man before me, I had a Lionel caboose with lighted interior give me problems, That's Right a Lighted Lionel Caboose giving trouble. I was using it with DCS and running a PS-2 engine when I started noticing problems, I thought the MTH engine went bad but it was the caboose's center rail pick-up that shorted out. Checked on repair parts for the caboose, $35.00, all I paid for the caboose was $35.00 originally! So guess what don't get repaired.

Lee F.

I would guess that the PF-45 didn't come with any sound unit in it, as there is very little space inside the cab of most diesel powered Williams engines. However look inside carefully for any thing that looks like a cut wire on the circuit board. If it had a B unit the sound unit should be inside there and not the powered unit.
FYI, I have a three GP-9's by Williams and the newer one has the True Blast 2 horn & bell inside the powered unit, the older GP-9 set of two has the whistle & bell(not T.B. 2) inside the second or unpowered GP-9.

Lee F.

Quote from: 3rail on June 17, 2010, 04:37:35 PM
Hi Joe,

That history could take me some time to research to give you dates, but here is a brief history.

Electronic Horn - 1st sound basic oscillating circuit that sounded like a buzzer.  You could adjust the pitch and frequency of the sound, but not the volume.

True Sounds - Installed as an option in Diesel and electric dummy units. Also available as separate sale kit. The board was large so it was difficult to fit inside most powered units.  The sound chip was discontinued without a direct replacement around 2001 or 2002.  A special version was also installed in a passenger car that has train station sounds (These were produced one year only) .

True Blast - single digital sound unit.  Horn for diesels, whistle for Steamers, and a bell version was installed in the first run of the NW-2 switcher.  Installed first in BL-2, FA-1, E-7, Scale Hudson, and NW-2. Replaced electronic horn as basic equipment and sold separately.

True Blast II - Digital Horn & Bell or Digital Whistle and Bell.  Replaced True Blast as basic equipment and sold separately.


FYI. QSI sound was never factory installed equipment this was a dealer installed option or available in units sold by QSI.

Regards,

3rail

3rail,

My question for you is about the QSI sound boards, and that is who installed these? I have two F-7 B units, one is a Santa Fe and the other a Pennsy, with the QSI boards and they both are in the same place, looks a like a factory installation to me.
Is it possible that these were sent out to QSI and then returned for sale with the QSI sound board installed?

Lee F.
My Williams dealer never mentioned who installed the QSI board.

Quote from: AG on June 14, 2010, 06:01:44 PM
Thanks guys for the input!
I am using an old ZW.
My first idea was connect the motor to the red bulb or the smoke unit.
what do you think?
Andre.

Andre,

If that is a nearly new engine try a smaller transformer before doing anything to the wiring in that engine! A Lionel ZW is too much power for that kind of Williams engine without a super long(25 to 32) consist of freight cars.

Lee F.

Quote from: 3rail on June 16, 2010, 01:58:01 PM
Bigdodge,

Start the loco with the sound unit installed, but keep the voltage under 10 volts.  If after 10 seconds you get an announcement like "1648 departing... 1648 clear on track 2"  or "leaving time for....." This is our True Sounds Board.

Regards,

3rail

I have an F unit ABA set that has that announcement, except it says departing on track 10, clear on track 10. Also inside it has the QSI label on the B unit's circuit board.
Is it a differant version because it uses track 10 compared to track 2?

Lee F.

I have been told that the Lionel CW-80 transformer starts closer to zero volts than any other transformer, so I would try that first before I mess with the circuit boards. You mess with the circuit boards in any way and that instantly kills your warrenty!
Another thing might be to use an older Lionel single train transformer that has less than 50 watts.

Lee F.

Can you open the shell of the B unit or unpower A unit diesel and see if it has a QSI Industries sound board inside it? If it has QSI on it inside, a printed label with black letters on a silver background, the label is about one inch by one & a half inches. The possibility is around the late 1980's to mid 1990's, sometime before the True Blast systems came out.

I have an F-7 ABA set with QSI sound board in it.
The thing that throws me off, is having less than four or five passenger cars with it for an older set. Unless somebody sold one or two passenger cars from the set.

Lee F.

Are you 100% sure that it is a Williams by Bachmann and not a plain Williams set?
I have found some odd sets that were sold by independent Williams distributors in the past.

Lee F.

The reason that I do that is so that I don't have to take the engine fully apart four or five times to fix something. Also with post war and pre war steam engines; you may not get the brushes seated right the first time, so it is easier to see if things are working with it apart.
American Flyer S gauge engines are bad for not keeping proper brush tension on the armature.

Lee F.

Have you tried some of the bigger hobby shops? Like Ma & Pa Junction in Maryland or Ready To Roll in Miami FL.

Lee F.

When working on the older Lionel 224E's(2-6-2 steam), I usually have the shell off and the front and rear wheels taken off to test it on the track. I want to see if it will reverse properly before putting the shell back on it, so maybe you need to take things apart and see what it does.

Lee F.

Have you tried going to a train show nearby you and find a junker engine and put the motor into the Girls Steam engine? A Hudson steam engine may work.
I did that with a Lionel 235 scout steam engine, the motor needed new rollers on the bottom & since it looked like a sealed unit(one that I could'nt open) I just replaced the whole motor assembly with a newer one. I bought the newer steam engine from a friend of mine for $5.00 because the plastic shell was warped severly from being exposed to heat.

Lee F.