3rd Rail ERR Railsounds Commander kit received!

Might be a mistake. Lionel makes fatboys and baby fatboys in both 8 and 16 ohms. The 16s are used in pairs where there is space for two. 16 will work but the volume will be lower. I would contact 3rd Rail. Sounds like teething problems.

Pete

Yep, the correct speaker is the 8 ohm speaker.  I have those in both sizes and as Pete says, the 16 ohm units are used two in parallel.

Here’s a photo of the old speaker that was provided vs. the new one I received from 3rd Rail.

Top = 3rd Rail

Bottom = ERR

Is the one on top the 16 ohm one? Looks like a quality item. 

Pete

Norton posted:

Might be a mistake. Lionel makes fatboys and baby fatboys in both 8 and 16 ohms. The 16s are used in pairs where there is space for two. 16 will work but the volume will be lower. I would contact 3rd Rail. Sounds like teething problems.

Pete

I’ll contact them today!

We've been using this speaker for years in both Steam and Diesel applications with out  a problem. The sound files we programmed have +4db volume from previous, so there should be no issues with volume.

Plus, the 3 piece speaker enclosure has a near air tight fit. That in itself gives it an awesome deep throaty chuff.  

We also have a dual speaker housing which we will make available shortly.

Also, we have 2" (CORRECTION 1 3/4")  Coil couplers that we will make available.

Enjoy.

Scott Mann

Thanks Scott for the explanation!  I tried one of the new sound kits and 16 ohm speakers.  Essentially the same volume as before.   Okay, +4 db from the sound file and lost -3 db from using the 16 ohm speaker.  It is a rare individual who can discern the +1 db difference!  Just for grins, I hooked up a 8 ohm speaker, then it is really loud as got the effect of louder sound file, and a bit of distortion as well.  Overall I am happy with the new sound file and speaker!  The new enclosure looks and performs well with a good seal to the chassis and lower height, too.  The lower height means less chance of interference with other things in the tender/engine.  Overall a good improvement.  

Glad to hear the explanation, thanks Scott.  Looking forward to seeing the 2-speaker enclosure.

So I take it the RS Commanders are now available? How does one order? Just fill out the form here?

http://www.3rdrail.com/err-3rdrail/index.html

Where have you been Norm.   You must have missed the announcement by 3rd Rail.   They were taking pre-orders several months ago, and we're waiting on the other products, namely the Cruise Commander and Cruise Commander Lite products.

Thought the products wouldn't be available until October.  Was surprised to see someone got the sound upgrades, could use a couple myself.

Well, you're right there Norm, I didn't think they would be available so soon either.  However, the RS Commander is the same board that Lionel uses in their products, so it was just getting the other bits and pieces that was needed.  I was a bit more surprised that we got AC Commanders, I didn't expect those until October.  I'd really love to see the Cruise products...

Folks,

I want to be as transparent as possible with the availability of these ERR items. We had a problem with the availability of  a memory chip for future orders of the Railsounds Boards. It took a month to identify a good replacement chip that had  availability and I have yet to get the delta cost for these new Railsounds Boards. So the entire order of Cruise Commanders and future Railsounds boards were set back a month while we identified and qualified a replacement. We are looking at a 4 - 6 month lead time of receiving our order from today. If in the mean time a tariff is placed on electronics coming from China, it will affect the cost of these items. So that is why I urged our customers to not wait for all of their order to arrive. Get what we have while you can.

We are out of AC commanders and have less than 10 DC commanders. We have 100 Railsounds boards available for sale. We will be adding dual speaker sets, coil couplers, new LED light boards to the list of items you can purchase.

Based on orders for Cruise Lite boards and Mini Commanders, a decision will be made to add these to the licensed products to be produced or not. Historically these items were very lightly ordered.

So between now and when we receive our current order from the board manufacturer, sit tight, and thanks for your support to keep this product line going. It's not as straight forward as you would think.

Scott, nothing ever is as easy as you imagine.  Just check my signature line if you don't believe me.   How many CC-Lite boards do I have to order to get them produced?

Scott,  Does this mean that future TMCC based boards could be effected by chip availability and a whole new design may be needed?  PS-2 boards when obsolete with parts and PS-3 had to be created.  Would seem to me the old TMCC tech chips may be gone too at some point?  G

The newer single-board ERR RS Commander is based on the Lionel Legacy "RS-Lite" board, so if that board is affected, I'd think that Lionel would be scrambling to find a fix!

Than why did it take months to find a replacement?  Lionel may be sitting on a large supply of chips, but that doesn't mean it is available and a rework required in the future.  G

I have no idea George, I just was commenting in the fact that Lionel has the same problem as the ERR board with their whole product line if a chip on the RS single-board is obsolete.  If there is a rework required in the future, I suspect that Lionel will have to step up to the plate as they can't ship a majority of their products without a solution.

OK, let's try this.

We have found a replacement for the obsolete part needed for the Railsounds Board. Problem averted.

But tomorrow could be another story.  An asteroid is scheduled to pass close to earth and might absorb all the oxygen out of our atmosphere as it passes. Or, a distant galaxy will fall into a black hole creating a gamma ray burst that will destroy all life on Earth. Or, the moon will break from it's orbit and cause the earth to wobble so severely that our crops will fail and we all will starve.

But what I do know, is that in 1 Billion years, the sun will become 10% hotter and life on earth will become impossible. So, PLEASE, enjoy your hobby now while you can.

I'll be in a nursing home in a billion years, I suspect I'll have to get rid of the trains before that.

John, you could start a train club in your nursing home

Greetings,

1. First of all, I'm a newbie to this great hobby and this forum. I definitely have the bug and spent hundreds of hours researching already and accumulated a nice collection in the past 4 plus months...moving right along on the logging/mill layout with some very nice locomotives (i.e., Shay's, Heisler, Climax, etc.)  and some other real cool pieces (conventional, TMCC and Legacy), including scratch building of O scale items like a estuary trestle and two engine garage.

2. I want to personally thank gunrunnerjohn as you steered me towards the layout model of SheyenneValley and I have tweaked it to include a 072 loop with some other really cool stuff. Thank you again John!

3. My question is with my Weaver Brass CN U4-A, 4-8-4 #6400. The current board in the tender is Train America Studios SAW V1.5 with only one connecting Radio board RCLC08 in CON1. The issue is no sound as there are no boards in RS Sound CON2 and RS Power CON3 and no speaker.

4. I would like to add Railsound 5.0 or recommended upgrade options and was thinking of going with 691-RS-001 Northern AT&SF #3751 RS 5.0 soundboard(s) plus a small speaker. Also, do I need to upgrade the Radio board to R4LC-C08 or will the current R2LC suffice? I'm setup for running conventional, TMCC and Legacy with Lionel Legacy Control System.

Thanks,

Jim

The existing R2LC is fine, it will work with any RS4 or RS5 board.  You'll need both the Railsounds board and the generic power supply board.  A standard 8 ohm speaker is what you need, should be readily available.

Sounds like a plan! Much appreciated John!

No sweat.  Note that the SAW board does not offer cruise control, so if that's important to you, you might consider swapping it out for the ERR Cruise Commander before putting more money into the existing configuration.

I was curious to learn more about the ERR Cruise Commander upgrade and how it would make this nice brass 4-8-4 Northern smoother with nice features I don't have now.

What would be your thoughts and recommended breakdown of items/parts required to complete an ERR CC upgrade (i.e., ERR CC, Railsounds Board, Speaker, etc.)? Would I be able to order the entire kit and parts through you? I have attached a pic of my tender.

@RoyBoy posted:

It looks like you have a modular TMCC system in the loco. All you would have to do is install a Cruise Commander "M" solder one wire, and reinstall the sound board and the sound power supply board.

Roy, that's not a modular system, that's the TAS SAW board.  The motor driver that the CC-M is designed to replace is actually embedded in that board.

@LoggerJim posted:

I was curious to learn more about the ERR Cruise Commander upgrade and how it would make this nice brass 4-8-4 Northern smoother with nice features I don't have now.

What would be your thoughts and recommended breakdown of items/parts required to complete an ERR CC upgrade (i.e., ERR CC, Railsounds Board, Speaker, etc.)? Would I be able to order the entire kit and parts through you? I have attached a pic of my tender.

If you have to buy the two Railsounds boards, you might as well buy the ERR Railsounds Commander, pretty much the same price but better quality sound.  The Cruise Commander replaces the SAW board and the R2LC, and the RailSounds Commander is the complete sound solution.

Thanks gents! I like that idea and will go that route then.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Roy, that's not a modular system, that's the TAS SAW board.  The motor driver that the CC-M is designed to replace is actually embedded in that board.

Oops! My bad,