Has anyone tried adding smoke to a Williams GP-9? I noticed that the light is mounted right under the hole, but I assume it could be moved. One of the can motors is fairly close also, so I don’t know if a smoke unit would fit. What smoke units have you tried? The TA units look nice, but they are expensive.
I have added smoke units to several dummies. I use Lionel units. One MTH shell was so narrow, I used a MTH unit [which was longer but narrower] in it. If the brass legs for a unit is not the right height, I make brackets from L brackets for cabinets and other types of woodwork. I build bridge rectifiers to reduce voltage as 18V is too high for a smoke unit to run on all the time. My engines are or have been converted to TMCC so they are run in command and 18V. Conventional mode, you probably will not need the bridge rectifier. Got two MPC era GP9’s that I have converted to TMCC. Might be adding smoke will be a new project for me. Got some pictures I can post later that might help.
Thanks, Chief. Did you use the regular Lionel plastic units that go into steamers, or did you use something else? If it was the regular steamer unit, doesn’t it need something to drive the pump to push the smoke up? Thanks for your help.
Get the fan driven units. BTW: need to check and see which way fan is turning. Should be clockwise. Most I get are wired wrong. You have to insert and straight pin in the connector and remove the prongs. Switch the black and red wires. Now therer is a model RC plane connector you will need to match the three prong connector to power the unit. The two outside wires are connected together. Center wire is to frame as common. Two connected wires are to pickups.
This is the first one I did. MTH dummy. “L” brackets are from ACE. Drilled the holes out with drill press and elongated them for adjustment up and down, side to side.
blurred but I did switches to turn smoke on and off and same for lights I added.
Gasket is foam gasket from ACE that is use to seal camper shells and other wide objects. One side sticky. Hope this helps. Email me if you have other questions.
If you are running command, this is the bridge rectifiers as I built them. Usually on three are need for Lionel units. More for MTH.
how to solder them.
Found the connector info
This connector is by JR, JRPA094, servo extension 6" Standard G. I use one end. Fits perfect.
Thanks, Chief for all the details. I do not have a dummy with this. Was hoping to squeeze something into the powered unit, but I think it might be too tight.
Not sure about modern production Williams GP-9’s but there is hardly any room to add anything inside the powered unit, like Chief mentioned. I have put a newer True Blast 2 horn from Williams into an unpowered GP-9 from a few years ago and there is very little room for anything to go in there, had to turn the speaker sideways and carefully mount the circuit board.
Lee F.
Find you some MPC era GP9’s. I found two at $50 each and they were new in the box. These had the can motors in the trucks. Plenty of room for TMCC, smoke and sound. Speaker in the fuel tank. Cut bottom out and glue in plastic screening used for screen doors [at ACE] for speaker protection.
Here are the two I purchased and running on TMCC.
The NS is a repaint I did myself.
They run good in lashup. Nothing in shell but TMCC and Sounds. I am going to put in Smoke. If you can only find GP7’s, the brake blisters are available as parts. They snap on and you have a Lionel version of GP9.
I will look for one and add it to my list of projects. Thanks.