anyone have a williams GP-9 and how do you like them?

I don't have a GP9, but I do have a GP38 and an O27 Alco set by WBB. Both are excellent runners.

Hi Tiffany,

 

At last count I have four Williams GP 9's and they all run like champs! Most of my curves are O31 so the GP 9's have no trouble navigating those or pulling a long line of freight cars either.

 

I have other Williams engines as well, SD90's and Hudson Steam Engines and they are all great performers!

 

Steve Tapper

I have 6 of them and they are great runners and do a great job for me. I have changed over to WBB engines and have now over 14 different models. F3,FA1,GP30,GP9,NW2,scale Hudson. Also have a pre order on the RS3's. 

I have a B and O GP9 and dummy. I rarely run it. It's a great runner....smooth, powerful and tackles switch irregularities extremely well. On the down side, I had to wire it in series to stop the jackrabbit starts with my ZW, there's little detail to it, and I find the horn sound to be annoying and never use it. Spoiled by my MTH engines, I guess.

 

Roger

hello guys and gals...............

 

What can I do to increase the volume of the sound in Williams 'true sound" system that comes with most Williams diesels ?  I am hearing impaired so need it to be bit louder.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678

Tiffany

Tiffany

take off the shell and their is a small sound board taped to the reversing board. Just follow the speaker wires because it connects to that board. On that board is a small volume pot that requires a very small straight blade screwdriver turn it a bit and that will increase the volume. You may want the engine on the track and in the neutral mode so you can adjust the volume. Hope that helps you. 

Tiffany,You might want to consider this option.The train sounds don't necessarily have to come from the trains themselves.You can place bookshelf speakers hidden on your layout and wire them to a standard stereo amp.There are hundreds of train sound cd's you can get.I have done it on my layout for background sounds.You can crank it up pretty loud.Nick

I just recently bought a new WBB GP9 and Dummy. I was very unhappy with it. Mostly because I had read so many posts on what a great runners they were. Maybe mine was the exception. It had two speeds, fast and warp speed. There was no slow to it, jackrabbit starts. It did give no problems navigating my old PW O27 switches. I believe I wired the motors in series and may have also added a string of diodes. I now have slow speed operation without the jackrabbit starts. I think it is a nice engine. Pulls good. And as a point of fact I have only purchased one MTH Locomotive that I did not have to modify in some way to make it either run properly, not short out on the old lionel switches or navigate properly thru those switches. I have one other Lionel RS3 modern era that's pretty good, but still a little bit on the jack rabbit side. With a string of cars it works ok.

 

With all that said, I would buy another WBB. Considering what I have to do to most of them, the detail is pretty good, paint lines crisp. And pulls good. Oh, all my locos are conventional, so I don't have the benefit of DCS, DCC, or other electronic control that gives better low speed control.

I have a Canadian National GP9 from WBB and although it isn't as heavy as their GG1 model, it still pulls every one of my cars around the little loop. It has absolutely no truble navigating my O-27 curves or my Lionel 1121 switches. The flywheel "coast to a stop" is awesome and the sound works well, even with my postwar ZW.

 

I like WBB locomotives so much, in fact, that I'm never really considering Lionel again for my needs.

 

Enjoy yours, they really are a well built model.

I have several Williams engines besides the GP-9 and never had any problem other then not starting in the direction that I wanted. So I removed the circuit board and installed a bridge rectifier in it's place, gained direction control(no reverse or neutral) and increase of speed.

 

Also for good speed control when needed I use the Troller TAC 2001 transformer as it has two voltage ranges to choose from. So I never series wired any Williams engine.

I have around 12 to 14 Williams engines now.

 

Lee Fritz

I have several WILLIAMS engines  al l a  re super runners and good pullers. I have SOUTHERN GP-9 and GP-38, running together, no p/roblems .

 

 

Rodv

It is hard to go wrong with Williams or WBB.  What will be nice is when they expand the new sound system to the remainder of their locomotives.  The current TBII set-up is fine, but if you have multiple locomotives it does get a bit repetitive.  That being siad, for the price point WBB sells at, it is difficult to beat them.  They are simply terrific runners.

I purchased 2 WBB GP9s earlier this year and I do like them. 

They look good, run good, pull good. 

 

Cons:  Not the best sounding units out there

         The lights on mine (including headlight) are quite dim.  Anyone know how to turn up the lights?

 

Overall good value for $$$.

hello guys and gals...........

 

Too bad the Williams diesels don't have the LED bayonet base 12 volt bulbs as I would like to buy some but not sure where to get them other than E-bay. Does anyone know which store has them ?

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678

Tiffany

Can use the diode string. Tapping the 2 ends of it will light LEDs,constant voltage,directional lighting

 

www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=488

 

Or here is how to do a constant voltage headlamp from track power.

 

www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=619

 

Dale H

Another way to do it is to use 2, 6 amp diodes instead of the bridge. Half wave each motor with opposite halves of the sine wave. Similar results to series wiring without the drawbacks.

 

Dale H

If you use bulbs,you may be better off with 18 volt ones.

 

Dale H

LED's would work better than regular 12 volt bulbs.

Don't do what Dale says, he says to use 18 volt bulbs, reason for not using an 18 volt bulb is they will be darker yet as 18 volt bulbs need more voltage to shine.

A better volt bulb would be 9 volt bulb as it will be brighter, but the life will not be as long, in other words it will burn out faster.

 

Lee Fritz

LED bulbs can be bought at local hobby shops or at train shows or online. They are very plentiful now, you may have to do some searching but you can find them in minutes usually.

One note about LED's; make sure they can work with 12 to 18 volts AC without any extra electronic pieces needed.

 

Lee Fritz

Ace Ectronics on Antione DR near 34th St in Houston have them.  The ones they sell seem to be more robust, and can take things like shorts on the tracks, et. al.

 

W/WBB Geeps and NW2's are the basic runners on the Houston Tinplate layout.  Run like Timexes or Pink Bunny Batteries.

Lee

 

it really depends on the amperage rating of the 12 and 18 volt bulb as to how bright it would be at a given voltage. In conventional operation sometimes 16 volts or more can be on the throttle. This would shorten the life of a 12 volt bulb,made for 14 volts maximum. 

 

All the screw in LEDs I have seen are for automotive use and borrowed and marketed for use on model trains. These are for 14 volts maximum. They will work as long as the throttle is kept down,but if run on 18 volts LED life could be shortened. 

 

The DYI circuit I linked with the CL2-N3 chip is constant voltage lighting and will take up to 30 volts input. The capacitor will keep them from flickering. 

 

Dale H

Hey Dale,

In your earlier post you did mention about using lower amp 18 volt bulbs, nor did you mention about adding diodes or other electronic parts to use with the light bulbs.

 

Lee Fritz

Lee

 

Personally I would convert to LEDs with a CV circuit and not use a light bulb. However if I used a light bulb I would use 18 volt and not 12 volt. Hard to say how bright it would be compared to the 12 volt. Suppose we replace a 12 volt 3 watt bulb with a 18 volt 5 watt bulb. The 18 volt one run at 12 volt might produce about 3 watts and the bulb is rated for the higher voltage.  There is some loss of efficiency doing this but it protects if the train is run at higher voltage. At 6 volts,both bulbs would be dim.  18 volt might last longer but not as long as an LED. Properly circuited the LED should not need replacement.

 

Dale H

 

 

Hello guys and gals...........

 

The max. of voltage on my TINY layout of 4 by 6 foot and lionel fastrack is 9.7 volts with the short 4 car train otherwise it will be going too fast so that's why I was asking about using the 12 volt LED's bayonet base bulbs in my Geep. 

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678

Tiffany