Hi. I recently picked up a postwar 6466W tender and tested it behind a postwar engine. It was a bit sluggish at first but otherwise worked fine. A few days later I took off the brush plate ( this required unbolting two wires and unsoldering one) cleaned the brushes and armature with googone and cleaned the armature grooves with a toothpick. I put eveything back together and placed the tender, by itself, on a track hooked to a 1033. I turned up the voltage and for the first time noticed that the tender buzzed just like a postwar e-unit does. I have three other postwar tenders, a 2046W and two of the 2037 variety and only one of these barely hums, the other two are silent. I am wondering how common it is for a postwar tender solenoid to buzz and if there is anything that can be done to quiet it a bit. Thanks for your input.
The noise you hear is coming from the whistle relay. There is no solenoid in the tender. If you look closely at relay coil, you can see two heavy copper rings at the bottom. Those are there to shield the polepiece from the alternating magnetic flux that results from the normal AC track voltage. They have no effect on the steady flux that results from the DC voltage component that the transformer puts out when you blow the whistle.
I’m afraid that whatever you do to weaken the effect of the AC will also weaken the effect of the DC. However, the relay you have may not have the best compromise between operating on DC and not on AC. So you might try fiddling with the spring or the armature spacing to see whether you can make a quieter arrangement that will still operate to blow the whistle.
Thanks lionelsoni. Do you mean the motor brush springs and armature? And if its not all that annoying, would it be o.k. to just leave the thing alone?
No, not the motor. The relay is the little thing about 1-inch on a side. It is perfectly okay (and probably the best thing to do) to leave it alone if you don’t mind the noise.
coaldust2026,
Bob (lionelsoni) is giving you good advice. The combination of whistle switch and rectifier disk (generally in the transformer) and the "slugged relay (with the copper rings) and the whistle motor itself must all work together to get the postwar air-whistle to sound. How this actually happens is as close to magic as anything in 3-rail model trains. If the whistle blows at all when the train is going around the track you might count yourself lucky.
Just one question: After you cleaned and oiled it, and run the voltage up, does it buzz
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just sitting there?
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sitting there with the whistle blowing?
In lieu of a thousand words:
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/searchcd31.htm?itm=708
A parts list can be found at the next link, but many of the parts are unavailable.
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/locos/len-w5.pdf
Make sure everything is tightened down securely. I’ve never known of one to buzz, but I’ve seen many that wouldn’t say much of anything…
I have one that buzzes, and was told I need a new relay.
Jim
Thanks everybody. In answer to one of your questions, it buzzes just sitting there and buzzes louder the more I increase the voltage. I had never taken one of these apart to clean it although I have cleaned many postwar steam engine brushes and armatures (2026, 2025, 2055 etc.). I wondered if I had done something to bring about the buzz. I think Iwill just leave it alone and hope that it will continue to work for a long time. Thanks again for all of the responses.
Jumijo (Jim) wrote,
I have one that buzzes, and was told I need a new relay.
Did you get a new relay? Where did you purchase it? Did it fix the buzzing problem?
No, they cost roughly $40 from a parts dealer. I’ll find a used one at a train show eventually.
Jim
I have used electronic (rather then electro-mechanical) replacement relays from Depotronics with excellent results. Of course one loses the “authentic originality” of a post-war tender, but gains functionality. One can read the installation instructions online. Try this link to check for availability. The products are called Superwhistle and Superhorn.