2006 Cruise Commander sound issue

Comparison photo of the two CCs:

It could be loading on the serial data line.  You could try buffering the serial data to the RS board with something like this.  The transistor is non-critical, most any common NPN transistor should work.

Might be worth trying, will have to look through my junk and see if I have some NPNs. It's interesting that the old Lionel 3 board Railsounds didn't seem to mind but the new ERR sounds are ignoring this older CC. 

It won't be the first time I've seen the new board present a bigger load than older boards.

Cool, I ordered some 2N2222s off of eBay, should have them by the end of the week. Thanks for the help!

Let me know how that works out.

Sorry to say but no dice with this. I have an older RS Commander, maybe I can try that for sounds.

Pretty odd, I wonder what is going on there?

No worries - got it going using the serial off the J3 connector on the CC into the 1K resistor/base connection. I originally had the 1K resistor/base connected directly to pin 24 on the R2LC. Thanks for the help man - nice meeting you at York btw!

I'm glad it all worked out.   It was great meeting you as well, I always look forward to meeting new folks in person.  I've admired your layout in pictures, I'd love to see it in person some day.