Lionel 6-18001 Rock Island Tender Question

I’m pretty sure the tender only houses the mighty sound of steam electronics. Hopefully you can get a wiring diagram of this engine. Sounds like either the tender wire or the engine wire may have been incorrectly installed. If this engine has the plug going into the brush plate try switching it to the other hole. Good luck.

I have one of these engines that I picked up several months ago at a train meet.  Rod is correct, the tender only houses the electronics board and speaker.  The board has the steam sound and the whistle.  My whistle sounds very good, but the steam sound has a lot of static.  So much so, that I simply run it unplugged, as the "Static-y Sound of Steam" is fairly annoying.  I suspect a component or two on the board may be damaged.

I have an old J.C. Penney's Rock Island Express set with the "Mighty Sound of Steam", and it actually sounds pretty darned good.  Which is why I think my board in question is faulty.  Hopefully your board will sound good too, if you can get it operational.  Wonder if anyone makes replacement boards for these, or if any NOS (new old stock) is still available?

On a side note, that 6-18001 tender has to have one of the best looking factory coal loads I've ever seen in any scale.  It looks to be cast resin.  Too bad all coal tenders don't come with a load like this.  Even the lower cost steam engines would look a lot better with a great looking coal load.