I scored a MPC General set on an auction site. The set does not have a whistling car like the postwar Super O version. The set did come with an extra 9552 car so using junk box parts, a whistling version was created. An old postwar tender gave up its whistling mechanism and a junk box roller pickup assembly converted the car to two pickups. The first picture shows the extra pickup installed. Consulting a postwar Lionel service manual showed that the whistle mechanism is installed upside down due to height clearance issues in the car. This necessitated cutting holes in the plastic chassis to clear the brush holders in addition to holes to mount the relay bracket. See picture 2. The third picture shows the finished install. Extra ground wires had to be added to connect the relay, whistle housing, and lights due to the chassis being plastic. It was a fun project that cost nothing to convert.
Attachments
Original Post