Lionel Mighty Sound of Steam Whistle Distortion?

The irony here is that Mighty Sound of Steam boards made starting in 1980 were improved to avoid static with the whistle.  MPC offered a whistle with the 1972 to 1975 run of the 8206 baby hudson, and then pulled the whistle until the release of the Chessie berk in 1980.

 

Yet all these sound boards are pretty fragile.

 

I had a couple of mine rebuilt by the repair guy at Traditional Trains Hobby in New Hyde Park, Long Island.

 

411 Jericho Turnpike  New Hyde Park, NY 11040

(516) 328-6664

 

The store does not have a website, call ahead to see when the repair guy works.

 

Ken

A couple of thoughts here. Maybe the material that you used to replace the original foam pad has something to do with it. If it is super sticky, maybe there is too much moisture in the 'sticky stuff' to short out a couple of resistors on the board and change the pitch of the whistle. I think on this engine, there was 2 foam pads with a metal plate sandwiched between them, was that replaced? Did you happen to resolder one of the 3 wires? If you think the board went bad, beleive it or not, Lionel still has replacement boards for this engine.

 

One of our MPC group members sent this in.

 

I know of someone who can actually repair all the Sound of steam electronic cicuit boards. He has done a few for me.
Email me, and I will send you his info.
Mark  nyfire313@yahoo.com

Ken

Good information

 

Thank you

Can you test it with another speaker?

The speaker may have picked now to blow, it would be hard to tell on static.

Make sure the test speaker is the same ohms as the original.

 

Just a thought.

THAT WAS ME!

I have a gentleman who has repaired numerous Sound of Steam boards.

Email me, and I will get you his information.

 

I have the 785 and the mighty sound of static just sounds horrible...and then if you operate the whistle I was looking for the dying animal in the basement. 

Maybe an upgrade with a ERR sound and AC commander is in order here. I sure would like to resurrect mine from the shelf.

J Daddy I purchased a New 783 from a entity called Locomods in which the SOS was replaced by a sound board from the ERR. Although I can only compare it to my 700E from 1990, since all my other steam engines are post war, it sounds pretty nice. So there is life after SOS. Mike

I have a 785 Hudson as well.  I find the whistle is OK but I never turn the SOS on.  It was a gift from my mom and dad when I was a kid in the 1980s, so I'll never sell it and it receives regular action (when my eldest doesn't want it in the case in his room) but I likely will update the sound system at some point. 

You lose the 'Chuff', but gain a super whistle, by replacing the SOS board and speaker with a Bachmann 'Tru-Blast II' steam sound unit. You also get a bell sound if your transformer supports it.

 

 

Just Checking in, Did any of you contact the repair man? did you get your items fixed?

My LHS used your contact and was able to get the board repaired.  

 

Thanks!

Mark:

 

I also just sent you a query about SOS steam repair. I have two engines sitting idle since they have very noisy boards (the wife wants to kill me whenever I pull them out to run them...) and I'd like to get them into your friend's backshop.

Dumb question...

 

If the boards are going south, wouldn't this be a good time to upgrade to the new ERR RailSounds Commander?  You'll get far superior sound to the SOS board, even if it's working properly.

Even though the sounds are inherently awful, they still might hold some nostalgic value or satiate those with the strict need for factory originality. That's why I would have sought a new one, had I not decided to go full modern scale and command control in the middle of the issue lol

True, but for those that just want sound, why not have better sound?

 

Yes, obviously there is that camp as well, I was just providing some insight on why some people would actually want new or repaired original boards.

Hmmm, mine doesn't seem to have a whistle....

 

 

These were certainly the dark ages of train sounds... 

 

Still, for me personally the mighty sounds of static bring back fond childhood memories of watching all the TM VHS tapes produced when those sounds were still considered new. Funny just how archaic those videos look as the years go on.

Sure it does, you're just not holding your lips properly!

 

Frederick, I just emailed you the information. Let me know how it works out for you...

 

 

 

...yeah, but when I push the dang button nothin happens!

I think that you can get a pill for that these days.

 

I have a Lionel tender with the sound of steam and one with the mighty sound of steam and would like contact information on the person that can repair them. 

Chuck, shoot me an email, and I will get you the contact info.

Why waste money on repairing the SOS boards to get awful sounds, no matter how nostalgic the sound sucks. 

 

Get some new ERR railsounds commander and stop wasting your money on those old antiquated SOS BOARDS. 

Same here, that is until Lionel brought out RailSounds 1.0, and TM used them heavily in the early 90's. As a result, those sounds stayed in my head much more vividly than the SOS, and they sounded a lot better than the SOS despite still being primitive by today's standards.

 

The chugging of the SOS nonetheless doesn't really bug me, though depending on the engine, the whistle can be at best tolerable to at worst awkward. The earliest whistles sounded like a broken fire alarm.

I won a Trainsounds Tender on the bay.  Desc. said tries to make sound, but needs repair.  Got it really cheap, around $20.  I opened it up when I got it and found this in it.  Guess they gutted it for the newer boards.

 

If anyone needs or wants this - let me know.  Probably around $5 for shipping?

 

 

RK, I'll take it.  I need one.  Thanks

There are several variations of MSOS I believe even in the first year there were two different boards in the Milwaukee Special. Both had two rheostats that could distort the sound if not adjusted right. But than it is Mighty Sound of Steam so how would you know if the sound is distorted? Being that the system is so old I would think one likely cause of distortion could be a deteriorating speaker.

 

What I think is interesting about the MPC era and the Mighty Sound of Steam is after the initial offering in the Milwaukee Special, Lionel never seemed interested in improving the system and only took measures to make it cheaper. In 1973 the first tenders had two rheostats for adjusting the sound and also had a pickup roller in the tender so you could operate the whistle independently of the synchronized static. The next generation dropped both of these features and they never returned. The Southern Crescent 1977 and Blue Comet 1978 didn’t even have a whistle. In 1981 (is this the beginning of LTI?) Lionel offered the Chicago & Alton set with diecast tender shell and six wheel trucks and a whistle, they upgraded the system with a downward facing speaker and a grill carved into the chassis for the sound to escape through, which increased the volume. But never put a pickup roller back in the tender so the whistle could be operated independently.

 

I still like my Cheesy Sound of Steam engines. Out of the nine steam engines running on our toy train display 4 are MSOS, 3 are different variations of Train Sounds one is a PS2 Hiawatha and another is pulling a Williams Tender with the TrueBlast II .

We we have a most unique symphony a sound and the Chicago & Alton is heard above them all. I love it.

 

I think if I had a high rail layout and not a toy train display I might not be running MSOS. But than I am one cheap SOB so who knows.

 

 

The "LTI era" began in 1986.