Just wondering if anyone has any ideas or fixes for the above problem. We have several switches on our layout and sometimes when the engine goes over it the horn blows by itself. It is only on the dual motored Williams Diesels. The diesels that were manufactured with the single motor does not have this problem. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the difference was. I have checked both versions of engines and tried to made modifications on the dual motor ones to get it to stop to no avail. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or knows of a fix.
I do not know the cause. However, I have had whistles and horns go off when occassionally pushing a engine hard (fast) and apparent shorts or sparks occur under the pickup roller. Perhaps you have a similar situation of sparks or momentary poor contact.
On one of the other posts, a guy mentioned putting a thin piece of cardboard between the frame of the engine and the top of the pick up roller, where it would hit if run across a turnout at higher speeds. Perhaps this can solve your problems. I have not faced this so I can only pass along the idea.
I actually had the whistle blow tonight on my Williams Berkshire while running at unusually high speed, without pushing the whistle button. In the past it’s happened with a recent low-end Lionel 4-4-2. Wasn’t crossing a switch either time, but center roller still may not have been making good contact at such unreasonable speeds.
A piece of electrical tape will insulate frame from rollers. Also had one of our guys that the pilot was hitting at switches and causing short. A piece of electrical tape stopped it until he “bent” the pilot upward some.
BTW: Lionel ZW’s with bricks and DCS will make Williams blow all the time. They do not like the new ZW’s and DCS.
I have a Williams berk which would whistle at odd times and eventually would whistle non-stop. My fix was to send the tender to Williams. They fixed it. I don’t know how. I sent it by UPS and it was repaired and returned in six days.
Chiefeagles, I take exception to the comment that the new ZW will blow the horn on Williams engines constantly. I have a new ZW, and it runs my Williams engines with no problems!
Not sure but have you tried cleaning the track? This happened to me with an older Lionel whistling tender, the whistle kept blowing all over the track, cleaned the roller wheels & all wheels on the tender to silence the horn also cleaned the track. If it happens only on a certain switch try replacing the switch with a differant one, it sounds expensive but sometimes it is the only cure. Since you are running Williams may I suggest replacing any Lionel 6-23011 or 6-23010 switches, I replaced these Lionel switches and had no further problems.
If all else fails, buy the Williams 150 watt transformer!
Does your problem occur when the loco is taking the turnout or going straight thru? Check the clearance between the frog and the inside rail when the switch is thrown. If it doesn’t move over far enough, the wheels on the trailing truck may scrape the frog causing a temporary short. You should see some blackening on the frog lip if this is happening. A little bending with needle nose pliars will fix the problem. Beyond that, I’d suspect that the rollers are bumping up against the frame. A peice of electrical tape between the rollers and frame will fix that issue.
My Williams ALCOs do this also. I took it as a free benefit. I have not taken the time to investigate the cause. It is related to interuptions and arcing. I have a couple of Lionel locos that also blow the whistle over track discontinuities.