Looking for cheap Sound Effects

SleeperN06 Dec 20, 2019

  1. SleeperN06

    SleeperN06 TrainBoard Member

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    I have all old Lionel trains without sound other than bell and whistles and don’t want to buy new trains. I have my power controllers hidden to keep the kids from running them off the track and turn each of the 4 trains on/off with remote outlets so I don’t have access to the horn or whistle.

    I’m thinking about having something simple that would activate the whistle when it comes to a crossing or entering a depot and maybe a conductor’s voice at a depot. At a later time I’ll figure out how to automatically interrupt the power and restore it to stop at the depot
     
  2. FlightRisk

    FlightRisk TrainBoard Member

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    Do you want to use the sounds on the train you have and signal them just like the hidden controller does? Are are you looking to add more sounds that come out a speaker somewhere? Will a handheld remote do or are you looking for automatic triggers? There are a hundred ways to do what I think you want, but the more information we have, the more we can narrow down solutions. You could add a handheld remote button system like the MRC soundstation 312. There is also the HLine Stamp Diesel and Bells board which I think does exactly what you want (reed switches can be mounted near the track at the crossing). This unit is self-contained, the instructions here give you everything you need: Dallee Electronics HLine Stamp

    You could add run wire from your controller to remote buttons or to a magnetic switch to trigger sounds when a metal engine passed by. Or you could duplicate on the tracks what your controller is doing to trigger the sounds. Or you could build something that just triggers a sound from a board and speaker when you want.
     
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  3. SleeperN06

    SleeperN06 TrainBoard Member

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    I don't know how to trigger sounds without the controller. My grandson likes to ring the bell and blow the whistle so I thought if I have to buy something then I get something that has other sounds. If I can do something for the bell and whistle without buying something then I'd do that. My trains are on 3 levels with porcelain houses on each level so I don't want to give access to speed control to the kids. The 1st time I let the kids play with the trains my nephew drove my Polar Express off the tracks and put a hole in the wall along with extensive damage to the loco.
     
  4. FlightRisk

    FlightRisk TrainBoard Member

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    How old are the trains? What engines? What is the model number of your controllers? Are these RailSounds 1.0? You may need 2 of these (one for the whistle and one for the bell): "610-5906-001 Sound Activation Button". Lionel still sells them, I believe, but you can find them easily from many sources. A circuit to make these is incredibly easy, but not sure you want to buy parts and solder something. All you need is something that puts a positive or negative DC bias on the AC voltage from the outside rails to the center rail. A power bridge rectifier or a few 30A diodes and a DPDT momentary switch is all there is to it. Way back when, there was a 147 that just used a D battery in a case with a switch wired in series with the transformer! There is an old 167 also, but it has a reverse button on it too.

    You can check with Lionel about the 5906 which is the way I would go if you have a compatible transformer other than the MW (6-4690 or modern TMCC systems). You remove the power lead from the transformer to the track and wire it into the left side of a 5906. You then run a wire from the right side of the first 5906 to the right side of the next 5906. Then run a wire from the left side of the second 5906 to the power into the track. Now one button is horn and the other is bell. The first one should be whistle and the second one bell. Label them and screw them down to something for the kids to play with. But let's make sure your system will work with those buttons.
     
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  5. SleeperN06

    SleeperN06 TrainBoard Member

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    They are all Lionel Christmas trains that I bought over 5 years ago.

    Note: years are approximately how long I’ve owned them

    1) Lionel 6-31941 Winter Wonderland 20 yrs

    2) Lionel 6-31960 Polar Express 14 yrs

    3) Lionel 7-11060 Hogwarts 10 yrs

    4) Lionel 6-38692 Angela Trotta 5 yrs.

    All have Lionel CW-80 80-watt transformers
     

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