Lionel Mohawk Railsounds

Tom,

From recent posts, it looks like Lionel is referring all locomotives older than 5 years to an authorized service station.

I just checked my box of extra electronics and I have the RailSounds 3.0 power and RS3 audio boards (minus chips, but you could transplant them from your existing board) available.

Shoot me a note if you're interested.

Regards,

Todd

Anyone recommend a reliable Lionel Service Station for these late 90's electronics? Not much availabe here in NC anymore since Lionel won't repair it.

Thanks

Tom

I'm in Colorado, but can help if you want to send it.

Chuck

www.Only3Rail.com

We repair them at Henning's Trains Tel: (215) 362-2442, I have spare Railsounds boards from 2.0 and on in stock.

If the speaker is good and no signs of mother board damage, I would replace the PS.  You actually could go to RS4.0 and swap chips.   G

RS5 chips will not work in an RS4 board, at least I've never gotten them to.  RS4 chips do work in an RS5 board.

I do agree, the P/S is the first thing to check, they're generic.

 The P/S is cooked;  it smoked and appears one of the components mounted to the heatsink is cracked.  Curious if this is power transistor or a voltage regulator. It's 3 leads suggest a transistor but my electrical knowledge is basic and antiquated.  The P/S is available so my impulse is to get a new one and plug it in;  problem is, not sure why it cooked in the 1st place….the track is protected by a fast acting circuit breaker and there was no sign of a short.  Original issue was intermittent railsounds, the P/S board was loose on the pins and the heat sink was very hot.  Removed the shell & pushed the board back on the pins. When powered back up the board smoked. Did the damage cascade into the R/S board and damage it?

It's probably best if I send it to one of you guys who know what you're doing, despite an inclination to be a do it youselfer. 

It's not uncommon for the P/S to go all on it's own.  I'd start by putting a new one in, it's likely it's just the P/S board.  If you want a P/S and a test of your RS sound board, send me an email at my profile address.  I have the power supply and I can test the RS board to insure you have a working set.

Your engine is RS 3.0 not 5.0, that is why I recommended upgrading to the RS 4.0 boards.  Your power supply is an early version.

I would just replace it and test engine.  G

You're right George, I don't know why I assumed RS5, I swear I saw it in the thread!   Certainly, for the age of the engine, RS3 makes a lot more sense.  The RS4 board obviously will work fine, I've done that swap.  I've actually used the RS2.5 chips in the RS4 boards, no problem at all.

  Yep, and I have used a non command RS 2.0 chip moved to a RS 2.5 platform to retain those sounds with command capability.  G

Interesting, I moved the RS4 non-command to a standard RS4 board, but they still didn't respond under command control.  I only had one set, but I did try two standard RS4 boards and they didn't work in command for either.

I do believe RS 4.0 is different and the pic changes for a command verse Non Command sound set.  But 2.0 had different hardware then 2.5.  So the pic was the same, just hardware prevented command operation.  G

That seemed to be the case when I tried it.  I don't believe I ever tried the RS 2 or 2.5 chips from a conventional set to see if they'd work in command.

Final word on the subject & thanks to all who replied. Since I have little experience working with Railsounds and TMCC components I thought it best to send the boards to someone knowledgeable so contacted gunrunnerjohn and sent them off to him.  He found the power supply and the rail sounds boards damaged as well as another RS board from my PW Celebration Seaboard Switcher. The sound chips were OK so he transplanted them to new boards and the engines are working fine now.