K-Line 0-4-0 A5 PRR 6-22103 Erratic whistle blowing .

Clean the wheels and pickup rollers.  G

I took your suggestion since it has been awhile since this engine has had attention. Cleaned all third rail pickups. Removed tender truck copper strip pickups and cleaned, cleaned wheels, axels, etc. Replaced parts.

Also cleaned outer Fastrack loop of layout, again.

Tried A5 engine.......got same erratic whistle result...many times.

I have solved this problem by lubing the collector roller (center pick-up) with a conductive oil like BACHMANN'S E-Z LUBE.  I think the arching and sparking inside the roller confuses the locomotive electronics resulting in a whistle blow. 

Yep.  Some times they can't be cleaned either if they have been neglected and require replacement.  Glad it was simple. G

It took me awhile to find a source for Bachmann’s lube and get it in here. I got it, applied it to the rollers, but it did little to improve the situation. However while working with the third rail collector rollers on the tender I did notice the forward roller on the tender had much more slop in the roller action. I will go for a new set for tender and engine after seeing how they can wear. Also I may consider replacing the rail sounds board after the roller change.

Jeff thanks for suggestion!

Installed the two copper ground straps for the tender axles, after cleaning the axles. Changed the collector rollers on the tender and swapped out the rail sounds board. Still have same erratic whistle issue.

Was unable to replace collector rollers on engine as the so called replacement for the engine rollers are too long and bottom out on the engine frame. Engine and tender rollers are called out to be the same according to current on-line parts for 6–22103 engine. They fit the tender but not the engine. All four rollers received were approximately 29/32” from center of pivot shaft to center of pickup roller shaft. The correct engine roller should be closer to 20/32” shaft ctr to shaft ctr. A call is in to Lionel.

I did polish the engine rollers as best i could.

Moving on I have thoughts of replacing R2LC on general principles or the tether. However the tether is unavailable according to the on-line parts list.

Does anyone out there have a schematic for the 6-22103 engine and tender as I haven’t found that available on-line either.

Any help would be appreciated!

After all the mechanical suggestions were tried without any significant improvement I decided to take a different approach. I Looked at problem from a "sound" and "initiate sound" point of view. Obtained Railsounds Power Board, Railsounds 4.0 / Generic Steam board and R2LC/Radio Receiver board. 

After opening the tender and replacing the two sound cards one at a time, not finding any joy, I moved on to the engine and replaced the R2LC Radio Receiver board and everything was fun again. Engine back to normal no more intermittent whistle blowing. It cost me a few bucks but its nice to have this A5 PRR back to normal again.

My thanks to all those who replied.

Interesting. Having a similar problem with a K-Line Mikado. Had almost non-existent chuff when I got it, and didn't run it much. Just replaced the chuff switch and all is well with that, but now I'm noticing it wants to blow the whistle when moving through most switches (pretty sure it was doing that previously, but was concentrating on the chuff). It is a CC engine, but I was testing it in conventional. 

In conventional mode, track DC offset triggers the whistle.  This is quite different than having the same issue in command mode where DC offset won't have any effect on the sounds.

For this issue, cleaning track, wheels, pickup rollers, etc. is the first step.  Using a conductive oil on the center rollers can help as well.

Thanks John. Kind of figured as much.

My "layout" is in the middle of a remodel, which is why I haven't tested it in command. If I'm understanding you, this may not be an issue in command- but I will clean everything up (and get some conductive oil).

I see a lot of stuff on the bench that I'm powering with the MTH Z-1000 (chopped waveform transformer) that acts up in conventional mode, obviously getting enough of a DC offset to trigger horns or bells.  I don't have those problems in command mode.

Didn't think to mention power source. FWIW- Z4000.

The Z4000 shouldn't be triggering it unless it has some flaw in the DC offset circuit, it's pretty close to a sine wave transformer.  I've vote for the other stuff I mentioned.

My erratic whistler problem on PRR A5 , after trying several Railsound boards was resolved after I changed the radio receiver brd ( R2LC / Radio Receiver (C13 code), part # 691R2LCC13, $45.00.....

If anyone knows why my Lionel “Heisler #3” engine shuts itself down when slowly crossing two fastrack  031 switches ( #6-81253 & 6-81254) connected back to back please send suggestions. Appears collector is just a 1/16” from hot rail when it stops. Thought twice about rebuilding collector pickups!

I think you answered your own question as to why the Heisler stops.