Those are EEPROM chips - they may or may not be train related. It would be interesting to get raw binary dumps to see what is there...

I doubt very much they part of any common model train electronics.  They look to be 1970's - 1980's vintage.

Pretty sure this type of PROM chip was used in the engine control computers in 1980’s General Motors cars and trucks...

Well, actually, those were used industry wide in the 1970's and 1980's.  I used a ton of similar EPROMS back in those days.

True. I made an assumption from the OP that the chips were somehow associated with “engines”, but of the automotive kind instead of the model train kind... a complete wild guess...

Hmmm. So probably no value in these at all, eh?  Here’s another pic of a few more. 

Like everyone has said, those are just very basic EEPROM chips from decades past. Little train hobbyist value, but there is minute value in the retro computer scene. They can be re-programmed with code to replace failed ICs on older computers. Throw them up on eBay as a lot of 1818 and 5180 EEPROMS and make a retro computer hobbyist happy.

EPROM's. Used a ton of 'em myself back in the '90's. Take the labels off all of them and set 'em out in the sun for a few days and all your problems will be solved..........

@bmoran4 posted:

Throw them up on eBay as a lot of 1818 and 5180 EEPROMS and make a retro computer hobbyist happy.

Actually, the label is what's programmed into them, they're common parts, 4k x 8 EPROMS.  They're not worth much at this point.  I see tons of them already on eBay, recent sales puts them at around $2.50-$3.00, so a lot of them might get a few bucks.

HN462532G

Description: EPROM, 4KX8, 450ns, MOS, CDIP24

I used those chips back in the late 80's and early 90's for engine controls.  I was an engine calibrator at the time for Ford, but GM and Chrysler used these as well.  Our experimental control modules had sockets we could plug these into interchangeably that were not soldered in.  Usually most have a circle window below the sticker so that you can expose to UV light to erase it.  Yes you could leave them in the sun in the Arizona desert and erase them, we used UV lights to speed up the process and had a Data I/O programmer to flash them.  Not much value in them today, I had racks and racks of these I disposed of many years ago.  

Interesting to note, the chips that Lionel used in the most of the 2000's for their railsounds sound files were the successors to the chips you had shown for engine control software and calibration the rest of the 90's.  They are smaller, square in shape and have curved in pins and it plugs into a socket as well, in the sound board for Lionel and in the Engine Control Module for the big 3.

01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 

You can always use them to show people what chips made in the USA look like!

When people start posting messages in binary I know it's time to unsubscribe!

@NYCGreg68 posted:

01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 

Translation:   at the end of the day it is all zeros and ones

Simple binary to ASCII conversion.  01100001 = a, 01110100 = t, 00100000 = [space], etc.

Translation: if then

From a historical perspective what is on them could be of some interest...  Especially if it's from some now defunct manufacturer that still has lots of whatever these were part of, still in service.

There has been a longstanding fight between the "right-to-repair" crowd and manufacturers that users should have some leeway in terms of copyright on software so they can repair their equipment.  Similar to how the US mandates that automobile manufacturers can't say who can or can't repair their vehicles.  The poster child for this right now are farmers that are trying to repair their tractors, combines, etc. that are from the early days of integrating computer circuitry and software into the farm implements.  I think there is  a big fight with John Deere over this.

Anyhow - some background as to how you came upon the chips or where they are from might help in determining any of their value from that perspective.

Thank you for the reply. I’ve had these for years in a bag in a box in storage. There was a point in time where I was looking for/collecting a number of the early MTH sound modules. I’m pretty confident to say that it had to be in a bundle that I purchased that included one of the sound box, like stormy weather, city sounds, Halloween/wind sounds etc.  In all likelihood. It was an eBay auction probably 12 to 15 years ago. I assumed that it was for an engine given some of the recognizable engine types on one or two of these but clearly that is incorrect.

Mike