Adding a Horn & Directional Lighting to Postwar

With a pulmor motor and e-unit, directional lighting can be accomplished by moving the "hot" headlight lead to the brush that gives proper illumination for direction of travel (it will be dim in the other direction). If you need a second light socket and bulb for "tail" lighting, the easiest place is probably radioshack or a local hobby shop.

Horn boards are available from many parts dealers and elsewhere. Depending on space requirements, it may be a tight fit.

Thanks Uberstationmeister.  I know that it may be a tight fit, but if its possible, I think I want to look into it, at least with the one GP20 I just cleaned up.  Any places in particular that has the horn (that you know of)?

Thanks,
Mike 

Easiest/quickest method for horn & bell shipped today from Amazon.

Rob,

Thanks!  Have you ever done this?  I see a plug on the end of that (I'm sure a quick cut would remove it though!), so I'm not sure, will it work with the post war stuff?

Thanks,
Mike 

You can buy the Williams TrueBlast II horn/bell board and give yourself a horn and bell.

For the direction lights, I use LED's, resistors, and diodes to wire them between the brush and the hot lead to the E-Unit.  This will give you good directional lighting, and no residual light from the opposite direction.  Of course, you have no lights in neutral.

Send me an email and I'll see if I can come up with a good deal on the horn/bell board, I'm taking one out of a Williams scale GG-1 for a command upgrade.   If you're in a hurry, here's a decent price on the unit: http://www.amazon.com/Williams...Diesel/dp/B0013PI9BS

Of course, you can go upscale for more money and add the ERR RailSounds Commander for some better sounds.

Can this horn board be installed in postwar AF S gauge locos ?

Anyone have instructions for this ?

Thanks.

The plug is for instant connection to the WBB reverse board, but otherwise the red goes to the rollers and the black goes to the chassis.

For "S", it also works perfectly except the bell and horn functions switch with the track rail polarity, or whether you are going East or West.

Gunnerjohn,

I could'nt find your e-mail address so this is only way I can reach you.

Thanks for your prompt answer.

Non, I am not in a hurry and I am interested. But I will need instructions for connecting this stuff. Will it work in steamers and/or diesels ? I am operating postwar AF with an 18B transfo: will I need additional equipment ?

Thanks again.

My e-mail adress is: <leon.bedard@gmail.com>

Noel,

I sort of feel like I'm being ambushed in my own thread..

Mike

Noel53, my offer was actually to Mike, so he has right of first refusal.

BTW, email addresses are in user profiles, at least mine is.

Terribly sorry, Mike. I certainly have no ambush ambitions. I'm way too old for that !

Of course you have first refusal right. Please excuse me.

Gunrunnerjohn, I'll simply wait and see how things develop. My offer stands only if and when Mike pulls out and gives a go ahead for me.

Noel,

No worries at all! I was just pointing it out and was trying to do so as politely as I could.  I hope I wasn't too harsh! 

John,

Got your email, will respond shortly, but I'll say now, .

Mike

That link I posted to the Amazon sale is a pretty good price on the TB2 horn/bell board set.  Actually, I see that Rob posted the same link earlier, popular place.

So the Williams unit will work with a pullmor motor and e-unit?

Yes.

True blast board only plays back the grade crossing signal, two longs, a short, and a final long.  You can't change that pattern.  If that's all you want/need it works well.

Well, it does have a bell too Chuck.

What are the other sounds that are available?  I really haven't thought about adding anything at all, but not having a horn, after using one on my new MTH SD70, I think it should have one.  The grade crossing is pretty much all I'd need it for

The TrueBlast II horn just has the crossing horn when you use the horn button, and it start/stops the bell with the bell button on the transformer.

gunrunner,

good call!

Mike,

no worries! remember, toy train are fun!

It's up to you.  Locomotives do use their horns for other purposes than grade crossing although that is what most of us get to hear most of the time.  With the TB2 that's all you will ever get to hear (other than the bell which is usually primarily used with passenger equipment to signify station stop/start).  You can't play any other pattern.  

A generic horn/whistle board allows you to generate whatever pattern you want; grade crossing, acknowledgement, stopping, starting, reversing, etc.  There are a number of patterns used for various purposes.

Chuck, what's a source for an alternate whistle/bell board?  Inquiring minds want to know.  I have a couple of the Lionel ones in my parts box, but none with a bell as well.

Thats ok, thats all I really want in my post war stuff.  I have a new MTH RK SD70M-2 and I dont know if I'll ever use anything other than the horn.  The only other thing I'd want besides a horn is the running engine sound.

Mike

There are signal sounds boards from the late 90's/ early 2000's that have only horn or whistle + bell.  Run about $30.  Not sure if Dallee still has a basic horn/whistle/bell board anymore.

Mike,

   When we talked at Patricks home and I mentioned the horn & bell still might be available, I was thinking of the TrueBlast, it does work very well.  Uberstationmaster gave you the correct way to up grade your lights, it also works correctly.  This should be an easy upgrade for you, go for it buddy.

PCRR/Dave

Dave, the only reason I don't like that method is the other light is also getting power.  If you wire from the hot on the E-Unit to the brushes, the off lead has no power at all, it's connected directly to the hot lead on the E-Unit.  If you use LED lighting, you get plenty of voltage across the motor armature for nice lighting.

Chuck, not that you mention it, I think I may have a signal sounds board somewhere.  I figured I might use it for a TMCC conversion since I could have horn/bell at least in a space smaller than the whole RailSounds package from ERR.

Gunrunner,

   You are absolutely correct, however at the time I never thought about engineering in that manner, with the lights, old ways die hard.  Heck I brought a Conventional 1960 type custom Military shark nose engine to run on Patricks fantastic layout this last weekend.

PCRR/Dave

Dave,

That thing was fast!  I'm also glad that what John is referring to is what you were talking about!

John,

I think I like having the LEDs better anyway.  They definitely do provide some nice lighting.  I'm going to try this out on the GP20 I've been working on first then possibly my original

Mike 

John,

If I have time tonight, I'm going to attempt to hook up at least the TrueBlast.  To get this to work, I assume I use the "whistle" handle on the transformer?

Thanks,
Mike 

Yep, and if you reverse the track connections from the transformer, it should ring the bell.  You can just cut that connector off and wire directly to those wires for the track voltage.

When you say reverse the track connections, you mean just flip the wires on the back of the transformer?  Will this also work if the directional control is off and just putting the train in reverse? 

Cut the connector off the of the TrueBlast and wire to what?  I'm a little confused, sorry!!

Oh the humanity . . . .

Haha Frank .  This is an engine that I've already had to repaint the frame and had the entire thing apart.  With that, I just figured "hey, why not experiment?"

I would have added a guy....sleeping in a chair.....with a dog trying to wake him up to my collection, but, well, you know how that goes . 

Flipping the transformer connections reverses the polarity of the DC offset that triggers the horn, and so it'll trigger the bell on the TBII.  It won't have any effect on the motor operation, and no it won't reverse the direction with the directional control off.

Ok, I thought maybe when the train was in reverse the bell would work, forward the horn.  I get what you're saying now about that, but not the wiring part where you said:

"You can just cut that connector off and wire directly to those wires for the track voltage."

I'm not dumb, I promise.

Thanks,
Mike 

There is a little white connector on the TBII that plugs into a Williams reverse board.  Since you don't have a Williams reverse board, you'll be wiring that right into the track pickups, red to center rail, black to outer rails. 

Thanks John, now I get it!  I'm looking forward to giving this a try.  Hope you'll be around later incase I'm standing at my bench doing this 

After you let the Magic Smoke out, it's too late.

And the confusion starts!!  I already emailed you John.  However, I did figure out that the black wire on the motor comes from the rollers.  I just dont know which is the wire that comes from the wheels (outer wheels).