MTH 30-9102 Operating Fire House

So to add some follow up on this.  I was correct for the early fire house if it had the original board.  The original FH board is a COB.  Version two replacement board is not.  In fact that moved to surface mounted fets too.  So it all depends on what board you have.  Picture of a board from a 30-9102 I am working on.  G

For the record, do you have a photo of the component side of the board?

Curious if there are markings, labels, or whatever showing when it was made.  There may also be printing showing programming pins to re-program the sound.  That is, decades ago there was a period of years where the best bang-for-the-buck for sound modules used a rather clever analog memory technology popularized by ISD.  You'd buy a sound module capable of 30 sec, 60 sec, etc.; I'm pretty sure even DigiKey sold them.  If you bought enough units you could have your custom sound pre-recorded.  Note the COB technology:

For DIY applications such as a custom greeting card or a one-off layout sound accessory, you'd typically hook up a microphone (or audio source) and press a "record" button to program (or re-program) your sound.  The point is this technology is/was inherently re-programmable.

So if this was the technology used, perhaps MTH has a secret programming connector or the like that allows you to re-program the firehouse sound.  Again, chasing this down I think would be a fools-errand or snipe hunt given the alternative of inexpensive "modern" digital MP3 sound modules. 

Keep fishing Stan  I have worked on a few of the early accessories and they are pretty much basic and through hole tech.  This FS was in the 97 catalog.  So it is vintage PS-1 era.  I have repaired quite a few of the motor transistors, and motor drive boxes over the years.  I did forget about the revised board even though I had one in stock.  Never worked on a new FS, and looking at the board I can see why.  Much better construction and all SMD.

No date on board, but I would imagine a 95 to 97 vintage.

Also, for anyone having to use this Version 2 board to replace an original Ver 1.8 board, the wiring diagram will not work.  I had to reverse polarity on 2 of the motors, and the nomenclature for the limit switches is different, and I had to swap around limit switch locations.  The board is not plug and play, and you have to solder to pins, and do some plug modifications to connect things up.  G

Thanks for the photo and troubleshooting info.  Figure now's the time to capture/document this kind of info given the goings-on with MTH.  So here's some clerical work to side-by-side GRJ's photo with your photo for the record.  It is quite apparent what you mean when you say the wiring/harness/connectors is not plug-and-play!