Newbie here…
We bought a Lionel Sante Fe Fast Freight Ready to Run set. So far the set is great other than the fact we get no brake sound effects. I read the manual and it says to go at a high rate of speed for at least 10 seconds and back down the throttle to half and we should get the effect. I’ve tried that and I get no brake effects. Is my model defective?
Thanks
I may not be able to help you, but on my Railsounds engines, I have to get down to almost stopping before the squeaky breaks sound kicks in. You may want to check with Lionel or your dealer on it, plus someone else may come along with more info. Thanks, John
Trigger has to do with the speed of the change of voltage. You need to be running at the higher speed and then quickly back off on the throttle to trigger the brake effect. Make sure you have the 9 volt battery installed to handle transitions. If track voiltage drops bellow 7-9 volts sounds cut out.
9 Volt battery? Where and how would I hook one up?
Welcome Foxtonsagent! Isn’t there a 9 v. battery in the Railsounds tender? In my set, the brakes squeal when I slow the train by reducing power. They really shriek when I suddenly stop.
Well I opened up the tender and there is no 9-Volt battery nor any place for a battery. I’ll call Lionel tomorrow and see if they can give me any insite.
Probably your tender picks up power from the rails like my Ballyhoo circus train.
RAILSOUNDS devices almost always had a battery for dealing with low volatge in conventional operation. When I looked up your set’s manual on the Lionel web site I realized you have a TRAINSOUNDS tender. These systems use a variation of QSI’s technology that Lionel licensed a few years back to trigger sounds under conventional control.
You are correct, there is no battery. The brakes should still squeal when there is a “noticeable” volatge shift. I remember trying to show a customer with a QSI sound system how to trigger the brakes. It took a little practice to get the timing of the “sweep” to trigger the brake sounds. Hopefully Lionel Tech support can help you out. Sorry about the “confusion”.
Well, I just got off the phone with Lionel Tech Support. The technician told me that unfortunately there is no way to make the brake sounds to work on the Sante Fe Fast Freight engine. I find this to be totally ridiculous since they advertise Brake Sounds on the box. Another thing is you can’t get a chuffing sound whenever you have the bell ringing.
This is my first train set and I plan on expanding so I’ll probably go to MTH from now on.
Somthing is wrong. It’s not false adveritsing. Take it to an Authorized Lionel Service Station. That might help.
I recently purchased the NYC 4-4-2 with TrainSounds and I can not get the squealing brakes to work as well. I plan on calling Lionel in the mornong.
Well, i was able to get the sound to work by not following the instructions. Instead of dropping the speed by half I dropped it to almost zero than kicked it back up a tiny bit and it works every time. Almost sounds like I need more of a load because it does not see enough of a voltage drop.
The technique you are using is pretty close to what I had to do with the QSI systems, fast sweep to near zero and fast sweep back up to mainteain speed.
Try adding a car with lights like a passenger car or an illuminated caboose. The older style lockons had lightbulbs that would probably produce enough of a load.
Now we all know what to do. Thanks Chuck. Your expertize is really a help here on the fourms.
All you do is put the throttle all the way up then bring it back down to the point of almost stoping the train as fast as you can. It takes practice to get it just right, but it is worth it.