operating horn on a Williams GP9

[JoeCarioca]

I have an older  GP-9 with incandescent lights and a sound card. The horn has never operated.  I run my layout with a Lionel 1032 75 watt transformer or a newer Lionel CW -80 80 watt transformer.  Both with horn / whistle functions.  Does the Williams sound card only operate with a Williams transformer? What could be the problem!?

[Len]

Sound cards are generally polarity sensitive. When you hit the horn button, a DC voltage or offset is applied along with the AC to trigger the horn. In units with horns & bells, one polarity triggers the horn, the opposite the bell. Try reversing the power wires to the track, which will reverse the DC polarity, and see if that fixes the problem.

If the problem is still there, you probably have a bad sound board. It's fairly easy to replace, just a two wire connection, with a new True Blast unit.

Len

[phillyreading]

Also you may have to hold the whistle button down for three seconds as some older Williams are difficult to trigger the horn unit.
The post war ZW is the worst transformer to use with Williams whistle or horn as you have to hold the whistle button two-thirds of the way to fully pushed and then hold it for up to four seconds to get the horn or whistle to work.
The newer CW-80 or MTH Z-1000 work well with most Williams engines, and may need the horn button held for a few seconds.

Lee F.

[JoeCarioca]

Thank you gentlemen.  I will give your advice a try and report back!

[JoeCarioca]

Took your advice on holding down the horn button. After a while I did get a low horn sound from the unit!  I also noticed that the train increased speed as well.  Thank you for your assistance!

[DeanCKaul]

I am running in a mixed Lionel/Williams environment, with a Lionel KW transformer, Lionel FasTrack and a Lionel Polar Express locomotive, as well as a new Williams GG1 (semiscale) and the Williams F3 Santa Fe diesel, also new. The problem is with horn function. The Lionel engine works OK, as does the GG1, however, the F3 bell/horn refuses to work in either mode. Does anyone have any ideas what to do?

[phillyreading]

I am running in a mixed Lionel/Williams environment, with a Lionel KW transformer, Lionel FasTrack and a Lionel Polar Express locomotive, as well as a new Williams GG1 (semiscale) and the Williams F3 Santa Fe diesel, also new. The problem is with horn function. The Lionel engine works OK, as does the GG1, however, the F3 bell/horn refuses to work in either mode. Does anyone have any ideas what to do?

Is this a newer F3? If so you may have to get a newer transformer(KW may be the problem, the whistle unit inside might need replacing) to use the newer F3 bell/horn feature. Not sure how the newer Williams by Bachmann horn units work.

Lee F.

[Len]

If the F3 is a WBB with a True Blast/True Blast II horn, the KW should operate it with no problem. If it's an older Williams loco, with the long PC board and separately mounted speaker, sometimes the PCB's get wonky (to use a technical term) with age. Or the speaker might be damaged. In either case, it's a simple job to install a TB/TB II sound unit.

Len