Or do you need its companion TMCC engine for the sounds to work?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
For command operation no. Conventionally yes. G
Well, even in conventional mode, many of the RS tenders would get the chuff from the locomotive through the wireless tether, so that might be an issue.
I can't think of any Lionel tenders that don't get the chuff signal from the engine, even the ones with wired tethers. Some 3rd Rail and Williams Brass tenders have chuff switches on the tender axles. For chuff on a Lionel tender you would have to add your own switch like the old magnet and reed switch trick.
Pete
Pete, that was my point about using the tender without a matching locomotive, you won't have any chuffing. I try not to make absolute statements as someone will come up with an example where I'm wrong. 
There are some tenders with hall effect sensors to generate the chuff.
IT sounds like I was smart to buy the ERR Railsounds for my daughters P.E. instead of the Railsounds equipped "Hudson Tender"
I know this is a little off topic but since it was mentioned in the last reply, I thought I'd ask. Will the ERR Railsounds fit in a Lionel conventional Thomas & Friends engine (Thomas, Percy, James, Diesel)?
Thanks,
Joe
I have a Railsounds (I suppose) standalone tender*. I believe it has a Hall sensor on a tender axle. Anyway, it chuffs merrily along** with or without a loco pulling it.
* Bought because an NYC-styled 736 shouldn't be encumbered with a PRR-syle tender.
** Really sensitive to dirty track. It is my dirty track detector.
Rex, Is this the separate sale 2426 style tender? That may be one of the few exceptions as it was meant to add Railsounds to a conventional engine.
Also agree on Lionel mixing their tenders up in the Post War years.
Pete
C&O # 2755 Berkshire jr. came with a stand alone cast metal tender.
I don't know where the box is to get the part number, but is a hall effect unit.
I often park it on a siding just for whistle/bell and the cycling sounds.
ironman1 posted:I know this is a little off topic but since it was mentioned in the last reply, I thought I'd ask. Will the ERR Railsounds fit in a Lionel conventional Thomas & Friends engine (Thomas, Percy, James, Diesel)?
Thanks,
Joe
It could most likely be made to fit. I've put TMCC into the Thomas, I don't remember how much space there was.
Doubt I'll do it, but thanks for the reply!
Most of the Railsounds 1 tenders are not stand alone out of the box However the ones with center rail pickups are and if I am not mistaken Lionel made some stand alone tenders that were sold without a loco. If you trace the center rail pickup from the loco to find the hot connection on the sound board then add center rail pickups to your tender you can make all of them stand alone. The ones with a back up light will still need to be connected to the loco for the back up light to come on when backing. I have converted three such locos 18005 NYC Hudson, 18006 Reading T1, and a18009 NYC Mohawk using LCRU2 boards mounted in the loco boiler. I added pickups to the tender on all three and if you are not fussy about the backup light they can be run with any loco. The whistle and bell still work in conventional mode and the Sound of steam only gives one chuff per driver rev, which is normal for sound using Hall sensors. Next project I plan is to see if I can make the ERR Sound Converter work with the LCRU2 boards. I have been playing around with replacing the magnet on the axle with a plastic disk and 2 small 3mm X 1mm thick disk magnets with the south poles facing out. I did a proof of concept rig and it does give 2 chuffs per driver rev. I tried 4 magnets but the chuffs were so close together that it was just continuous white noise above about 30 scale mph. It actually sounds good at low speeds. Attached photo showing the added pickup and coil coupler.
