Lionel Large Scale and TMCC

Interesting.  That was before my time.  Do you have any more information to share like a model number or anything else?  This intrigues me.

There are more examples but a sample of Railsounds-equipped diesels are 85000, 85001 and 85003. An example of a Command-Ready diesel is 85014. 

Lionel Service Suppliment 21 has a parts breakdown of a Railsounds diesel (http://www.lionel.com/media/su...ent21/21Complete.pdf)

 

 

Those early RS units are similar to the early RS 1 and 2.0 that was conventional only.  No ability to operate in command, unless moving the 2.0 chips over to a RS 2.5 platform.

 

Looking at Lionel's parts for your 85014, it used a modular Mother board.  So my assumption is that adding a R2LC C08 in place of the 103 or 104 Modular reverse board would change it to command.  May have to swap some jumpers on the MB also.  Any RS 4.0 also could be added.  You also could add ERR.  This all assumes that these ran on AC to the track and the engine converted it to DC.  Similar to the current O line.  If they ran on DC, I don't think the ERR will work, but best to contact them.  I know the early Large Scale had a voltage reduction board besides the amplifier and RS board.  G

Thanks, GGG. An issue I have with my Lionel Large Scale 4-4-2 with RailSounds is excessive noise. There's a lot of steady static noise from the speaker. The chuffing works but I cannot get the whistle or bell to operate. The instructions state the need to wire an inline inductor. I can see the inductor eliminating the static. However, your best guess, would not having an inductor wired in prevent the whistle and bell from functioning?

I don't think so.  I would look at the caps on the amp board.  That is pretty old stuff and the caps may be bad causing the static.  Maybe replace the caps with new.  G

I've seen a lot of the older RS4 boards that seem to have excessive background noise, I think it's just the nature of the beast.

This is not RS 4.  For the older unit he is talking about it is like RS 1.0 or 2.  The Large Scale had a separate board they called an Amplifier, plus the sound board.  They called it RS, but I think it is pre "real" RS that started with 2.0.  G

Well, earlier RailSounds were no better than RS4, and many times worse.

 

I removed all the electronics from my large scale Atlantic. I can take pictures of each board if there's any interest. At this stage I would forego TMCC and install decent sounds that can be activated from the RailSounds controller. I sense this may be very problematic to do. Outside of using true large scale sounds from Phoenix or Tsunami with DCC I could install an ECRU and go the traditional RailSounds route with AC power...?

I know some have static until started up, but the Power Supply is the same used up through Legacy 6.0.  So other than a small cap or 2 on the RS board itself not sure what causes this.  G

The noise is probably due to the older RS audio boards, not necessarily the P/S.

 

I have a bunch of RS 4.0 steam from 1999 and it runs and sounds fine.  G

I have a bunch of Railsounds 2.0 and 2.5, one of which I bought from GGG, the Pennsy GP7 with 2.5.  Which is a perfect compliment to the earlier Pennsy 2.0.  That set sounds great together.   But some old boards do get old.  I think that is true too.  And so do old speakers.  They get old too, and fuzzy sounding sometimes.

Technically-speaking, what allowed these DC powered locomotives to work with TMCC or for Railsounds to operate? I get that the electronics are native to DC.

 

TMCC works well in the DC environment...S Scale folks are using it every day.

 

An issue I have with my Lionel Large Scale 4-4-2 with RailSounds is excessive noise. There's a lot of steady static noise from the speaker. The chuffing works but I cannot get the whistle or bell to operate. The instructions state the need to wire an inline inductor. I can see the inductor eliminating the static. However, your best guess, would not having an inductor wired in prevent the whistle and bell from functioning?

 

First question I would ask you is what DC power supply are you using? Lionel wanted only unfiltered DC power used. The sound activation box is distorting the sine wave. Lionel publication 78-5014-251 & 78-5014-250 cover the large scale signal sounds equipped engines.

 

On a side note these large scale Lionel engines are terrible runners. The wheels are aluminum and cause all kinds of power pickup problems. Wheels will oxide right before your eyes and stop picking power off the rails. Also the carbon brushes rubbing against the wheels will oxide overnight. I had 8 of these engines and sold all but 1...that 1 has K-Line drives mounted under it.

Power supply-wise for testing purposes I've used Lionel's 4060 which they packed in with their large scale sets. I've never had a problem using this power pack and the sound activation box triggering sounds on the pre-TMCC diesels. However, the 85110 steam engine with only Railsounds has been a problem. The static starts about two seconds into power up and the whistle and bell fail to activate. The chuff works though it struggles to out-volume the static. 

 

For the purpose of self-education I'd like to find a good source of information online regarding the S scale/DC crowd using TMCC. Apparently I'm not using the right keywords online.