I have an MTH Z-1000 transformer and it won’t blow the whistle in my postwar engines. I hear the whistle motor turn over but no sound. They have been lubricated. Is there anyway to add my own fixed DC current to the track, and use a switch or button to activate it whenever I wanted?
Does your whistle work properly with a postwar transformer that has a whistle feature? If not you may need to clean the brushes in the motor and the contact plate on the armature.
Also you may want to add a Lionel whistle button between the Z-1000 transformer and the track power.
Lee F.
As long as the relay is closing, the transformer is not the problem.
I would first bypass the relay, and power the whistle motor directly with alligator clips from a transformer. If the whistle works well, you need to take a look at the relay.
I would clean the relay contacts, and visually inspect the operation of the relay to ensure that it’s closing all the way. If necessary, bend the contacts slightly to make sure that theyr’e touching firmly.
If bypassing the relay makes no improvement, you should spend some time working on the whistle motor. Oil is part of the equation, but the commutator and brushes also need to be clean. Replace the brushes if necessary.
Some whistles just work better than others-I have one or two that sound awful regardless of what I do to them.
I have cleaned the contacts on the relay on my 2055’s tender and it does work better now. I will try that with the 726 since it’s whistle motor spins over but not fast enough. I don’t have a postwar transformer. If I cleaned the motor I would have to unsauder wires to get the brush plate off, so that shouldn’t be hard.
Well, I looked at the commutator face of the whistle motor in the 726 and it looked perfectly fine. I did clean the contact points of the relay, but no improvement. I guess I will just have to hook up a heavier load behind her and make her whistle with delight. No problem with that. LOL!
Like Ben mentioned you may need a Lionel post war transformer with a whistle button. The old post war whistles take a little more voltage to make the whistle noise as they have a motor the spins a small turbine to force air through an opening, maybe the motor isn’t spinning fast enough.
Also have you cleaned the wheels on the tender? Both center pick-up & outside wheels that contact the outer rails. I had a tender blow the whistle because the track was dirty, maybe cleaning the track will help.
Lee F.
I agree with Lee. My 2046W tender has always sucked the power, even when new and the postwar ZW was new. And as you suggested, Berk, the train had to be running at a pretty good clip to get decent whistle action.
After I took my stuff out of a couple of decades of storage, I performed much of the recommended maintenance recommended here. What I found was that on the first pass I was a little too sparing on the lubrication and got improvement on the second pass. I also notice that my whistle performance improves during the operating session.
I also agree with the recommendation to check the cleanliness of the track, pickup, and wheels.
What do the wires and solder joints look like. If original, they may have seen a better day.
Jack
I just sent one if for repair. The technician said it works fine on his test track. He said if the motor turns but no sound, maybe clean the wheels and track - as already mentioned. He said the wheels were pretty dirty and that might be the problem on my larger layout.
Mine did nothing on my track unless I lifted the relay. The tech said the rollers, or collectors, were also badly worn. He is going to replace them and clean everything. Both my transformers, a 1033 and ZW, speed the train up with the whistle control, so the tech thinks they are probably okay.
Hopefully, a good cleaning will get yours up and running. Running at higher speeds does provide more voltage to the track and whistle, right lionelsoni?
Charlie
Yes.
There is a trick that I have suggested to folks who want more voltage on their smoke generators. It should also work for the whistle. It is to put a voltage-dropping component in series with the motor only. This way, for the same motor speed, the track voltage will have to be higher to overcome the drop that you have introduced. A handy way to get a drop that doesn’t change with current is to wire together the + and - terminals of a bridge rectifier module. Then wire the other two, ~ terminals in series with the motor. One rectifier will get you about 1 volt of drop to the motor, which is equivalent to the same voltage increase to the whistle (and smoke generator). If you need more, put more rectifier modules in series.
Here is a suitable rectifier: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062580
Although I said to wire the rectifier in series with the motor only, there may be part of the locomotive (perhaps the headlight?) that you don’t want to share the boosted voltage. In that case, just leave it connected to the motor side of the rectifier.
The wheels on the 726’s tender are very dirty, the contact rollers are not worn though. The track needs to be clean also. I will see if I can clean the wheels, and track, and see if that shows improvement. I have lubricated the whistle motor’s bearings really good too.
Yes I have thought about these things, but I didn’t know what they were called. It seems tempting to get one, but I would like to leave the 726’s original wiring alone. They are in excellent shape, and the sauder joints in the tender seem okay, but some are alittle dirty.
Of course it’s your call. But I have looked at the 726’s wiring diagram and found a place where you could wire a rectifier in series with the motor with very little disturbance. That’s between the green wire from the e-unit and the center terminal on the motor, where the green wire connects to the field winding. (There is no change needed in the tender in any case.)