Lionel GW180 low voltage DC and old Williams horn boards

Maybe you can go back to one of the post war ZW's and add new whistle discs to the transformer.

I have about a dozen Williams before Bachmann and don't have any problems with the horn units unless I have a dirty track condition.

Also I am using either a post war 275 watt ZW or an MTH Z-1000 transformer with my Williams engines.

 

Gunrunnerjohn or somebody else into electronics more then me might know something about DC filters.

 

Lee Fritz

Thanks Lee!

 

The old Williams horns were working fine with KWs, LWs, ZWs and CWs...when we ran them with the new GW-180s is when we saw the un-wanted, random, partial horn blowing.  Thinking it might be something with the club layout I made just a circle of track on the floor connected to a stand alone GW 180; same issue...Squawking like a hurt goose...

 

Thanks again, Mike 

I've said it before, but this is one reason I'm not a fan of chopped-sine-wave power supplies. I wish they'd go back to making "real" transformers instead if these electronic types...

All I can say is thanks for the heads up about the newer, chopped wave, transformers.

Looks like I will get my old transformers serviced instead of buying new ones. At close to $400 to $700 for a new transformer(ZW-L or Z-4000) I don't see myself buying a new transformer anytime soon.

I have a 275 watt ZW, a 250 watt Z, a 190 watt KW and a couple of smaller Lionel post war transformers.

Have not noticed any bad results using an MTH Z-1000 and Williams engines.

Also have a Troller TAC 2001 transformer which works great with my Williams, as it gives me two power controls, and two voltage ranges to use and has whistle buttons.

 

Lee Fritz

if the gw180 is anything like a cw80 there are two things you can try.

 

1. the magic  lightbulb trick (just add a incandescent bulb to the circuit)

 

2. a 1uf non polar capacitor across the track outputs