af prewar on board whistle

The contact pictured on the left is a pickup to power the lights in the car only and contacts only with the center rail and the contact pictured on the right is a pickup for the 4 rail whistle track.  

Not sure as to your confusion, because the lighter shade set should not have a whistle, unless it is a set that is repainted in the wrong color.

I don't see 4 rail whistle track on your layout so I cannot see how you would be able to blow the whistle on your set.

The 4th rail of the American Flyer 4 rail whistle track would have a separate power supply to it and a button to provide power to blow the whistle.

NWL

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

The contact pictured on the left is a pickup to power the lights in the car only and contacts only with the center rail and the contact pictured on the right is a pickup for the 4 rail whistle track.  

Not sure as to your confusion, because the lighter shade set should not have a whistle, unless it is a set that is repainted in the wrong color.

I don't see 4 rail whistle track on your layout so I cannot see how you would be able to blow the whistle on your set.

The 4th rail of the American Flyer 4 rail whistle track would have a separate power supply to it and a button to provide power to blow the whistle.

NWL

Be careful when sourcing 4-rail track as they also marketed 3-rail with the same fiber backing during that time period.

I'm not really up to speed on PreW AF. (or post war) But most basics about trains carry across brand, scales, and era imo

Wouldn't it be possible for the 4r car to work off the center if a new shoe was made or adapted to run on the center?  Run on a ZW, it may need the Lionel whistle relay, that's about it. (doesn't 4r inside rails just deliver whistle power from a plain old button switch? So they didn't have to pay use fee to Ives or Lionel etc?)

And the 3r car; a possible example of a mod adding a whistle rather than a repaint?(different mount).   If ran on GarGraves or other track with all rails isolated, no telling what a former owner had rigged.

Since you have a ZW, that whistle signal needs a shunt coil relay that only pulls on DC, not AC. 1 AC cycle, has two waves, one ± one - .  The ZW knocks off a little of one wave. The remaining imbalance an "offset".  An offset can be measured as a dc+ or dc- wave (a pulsed dc vs the constant form we think of from batteries)  So from what I gather here, the AFs need the center shoe and Lionel relay to run off the ZW and whistle like a Lionel would.  Not hard at all imo.

Some folk are more concerned with operations than originality. Fine by me. I just think it could be a very reversible mod and still achieve an operation goal. I'm the type to save the old parts in a ziplock with a note while "trying to stuff a big block into anything that rolls"

Brass automotive feeler gauges make a nice flexible shoe with good contact and are found easily and cheap when worn out. A set has a few usable thicknesses, but ask, there may be singles under the counter at some places. (ACE/ACO has them sometimes too)... Mechanics with a big set can replace just one bad blade that way.

they made more curved that straight ,so i was told,,,that be true ,cause i have lots of curve,,,mostly usable,,,,i have kept the straights in my new loop,,,,sadly the onboard whistles sound like a sick cow,,,,ha,and i only have one curve with the power clip,,out of all that i have,,and have never seen it with a straight,,,,i also have seen 1/2 curve and 1/2 straight,,once at york

@terry hudon posted:

they made more curved that straight ,so i was told,,,that be true ,cause i have lots of curve,,,mostly usable,,,,i have kept the straights in my new loop,,,,sadly the onboard whistles sound like a sick cow,,,,ha,and i only have one curve with the power clip,,out of all that i have,,and have never seen it with a straight,,,,i also have seen 1/2 curve and 1/2 straight,,once at york

Yes, the power attachments are only found on the curves.  They did make fewer straights, because they needed more curves to make a full circle.  The half sections are more difficult to find, as are the 3 rail tracks on fiberboard.  They also made jumper wires for the 4th rail to go around/over the crossovers and switches.  One would just plug the jumper wire into the open ends of the 4th rail and then connect it to the next piece of track on the other side of the crossover/switch.

I have several sets with whistles, which all work, but they sit on shelves and I do not use any of the 4 rail track that I have for the sets.

NWL

If anybody is needing the 4 rail AF track. I have 8 straight & 12 curved sections available as a lot. They are in excellent condition.  Harry 

A couple questions on using 4 rail track.

Did American Flyer ever give suggestions on how to set up the track if instead of running circle/oval, the track plan was  "L"shaped? 

Would you make a taper on the 4th rail so it would not snag anything? 

How about if you wanted to use 3 rail switches also?  

Thanks Dan