Hello,
I tried the suggestion posted concerning the Railsounds not working on E-6. The Railsounds still does not work. I may need a new Railsounds mother board.
Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated.
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Your locomotive does not have RailSounds from the factory. It has SignalSounds -- there's a difference. With SignalSounds, the only sounds you'll have are bell and whistle as activated from your transformer.
The motherboards in those early locomotives rarely fail. Is there a burned trace on it to indicate a problem? If not, the motherboard is not likely the cause of whatever system you have not working.
Have you checked-out the sound board itself, speaker, volume control pot, and the tether from the locomotive? Those are more likely to be the point of failure.
I hope this helps.
TRW
Thanks for the update concerning the RailSounds and SignalSounds. When the locomotive is running choo choo sound sounds for a while then the whistle gives a short burst and then the bell starts ringing. If I turn turn the volume all the off it naturally runs okay. Is there some sort of short somewhere. As you can tell I am not familiar with electronics in these newer locomotives.
Your symptoms suggest a problem with the actual sound board.
My first step is to reseat the boards and check all the connections. If that doesn't help, I reseat the two PLCC chips in the sockets on the RS board. Don't try to do that job with anything but a PLCC extractor.
Originally Posted by AFL O&S Gauger:
Thanks for the update concerning the RailSounds and SignalSounds. When the locomotive is running choo choo sound sounds for a while then the whistle gives a short burst and then the bell starts ringing. If I turn turn the volume all the off it naturally runs okay. Is there some sort of short somewhere. As you can tell I am not familiar with electronics in these newer locomotives.
If you're getting a "choo choo" sound, then your locomotive has been modified. SignalSounds has whistle and bell only -- no background sounds. It would help if you could remove the tender shell and take a photo of what's in there.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Your symptoms suggest a problem with the actual sound board.
My first step is to reseat the boards and check all the connections. If that doesn't help, I reseat the two PLCC chips in the sockets on the RS board. Don't try to do that job with anything but a PLCC extractor.
A SignalSounds board doesn't have any PLCC chips, although they do have a standard IC that can be removed. I'd still suggest we wait for photos to see what's really inside the tender.
TRW
If he's getting chuffing from the board it's not a SS board.
An SS board can have chuffs, depends on the vintage. And per TRW does not have PLCC chips, they are DIP. I am not sure what is in this E6, however power connections seem possible to be an issue based on the symptoms. Or maybe it is just a bad SS board.
I haven't seen a SS with chuffing, that's another wrinkle. Thanks for the added info Jon. You really do learn something every day here. 
Looks like it would be easy to upgrade that to RailSounds. If the SS board happens to be bad, might as well have better sound. The MB is a standard RS board.
Thanks again for your suggestions. I am glad the E-6 runs well. I run mostly Post War Lionel and they don't have the modern sound systems. Take care, John
