bell, whistle, crew talk not responding to commands for Lehigh Valley 6-38040

David,

Turn off (unplug) your command base and try powering the track conventionally, i.e. use a transformer and bring the throttle up from off.   The engine should move, although it may be in neutral the first time you apply power in this way, and the sounds, like steam sounds for instance, should be there.

If it doesn't move, cycle the throttle off and back on.  Once it's moving you should get chuffing.

If you don't in this situation then it's likely to be the sound board in the tender that's bad or has a bad connection.

Try one more thing as well if that's the case.  Take the shell off the tender, then remove and replace each PC board plugged into the motherboard.  This will clean the contacts and restore electrical connection if that's the problem.  Be careful putting them back though -- the pins must line up precisely when they go back or you'll get the magic smoke that comes from fried electronics.

Mike

There's no reason this can't be brought back to life, truthfully a true Legacy upgrade would be cost prohibitive, you'd be better off just buying a Legacy Camelback.

https://ogrforum.com/...2#167684843583777772

Mike, thank you, I will give your recommendations a try this weekend and will let you know the outcome.

https://ogrforum.com/...6#167684843583913756

Thank you gunrunnerjohn for the Legacy upgrade advice! I do plan on getting this one brought back to life!

Mike I had a chance to try your recommendations and no luck.  I did pull the sound board off and back on and it is making the same sounds except no chuffing etc.. bell and whistle work along with back ground sound.  Sounds like it could be the sound board.

Ok, my next question is.

1. Are sound boards available from Lionel?  If so, should I try getting a new sound board first before sending it somewhere for service?

Thanks,

David

Sound boards are no longer available from Lionel, but I have a bunch of RS4 boards and generic RS power boards.

If it has background sounds and bell and whistle, my guess is the chuff switch or the tether, not anything to do with the sound board.

I would agree with John on this.

Because you are getting only background sounds, I would look at the connection between the engine and tender,  Try to run a continuity check on all the wires between the engine and tender.  This will mean you will need to take of the shell off both the tender and the engine.

One thing I would try 1st would be plug and unplug the tether several times.  It might be oxidized and have a poor or no connection. These male and female connections can be hard to clean.  Be careful cleaning the female connections. If you insert a pin that is too big, then the plug will never have a good connection. I will sometimes use a wire with a smaller diameter than the male pins, with the idea that it will scratch off the oxidation.  You may want to try an electrical contact cleaner, but be careful as some of these are not kind to plastic.

Great news, I got her working!  I proceeded with gunrunnersjohn's recommendation and checked the tether and it was all good. So with Mike's recommendation I took the shell of the engine and started looking for loose wiring etc...  I noticed that the R2LC board was only 1/4 of the way on so I took it off and put it back on and made sure it was pushed all the way on and it worked!  I have all the sounds working now. 

Thank you everyone for their recommendations it really helped me through this process!

Nice to hear.  Most of the time it's something simple, like this.

Mike