Need Help Flyer HO "air chime" whistle

Gilbert only made a couple of S gauge DC engines with a tender whistle. Those engines used an electronic whistle control box to actuate the whistle, not a vibrating tube. In any event both the vibrators and speakers have been known to fail.

I am not familiar with the 446 HO engine, it sounds like it was supplied with the vibrating tube controller

Attached is the connection diagram for the 334 DC engine with whistle. Also attached is a Gilbert bulletin for using the universal motored engines with whistle on DC track power.

The engine won't run when the tube is removed because the track voltage goes through the tube. It uses the same vibrator tube as the S gauge version. The tender should not 'buzz' because you are using DC current, right? Not a AC transformer. Are you sure you replaced the capacitor with the same value? It sounds like a possible wiring error, as the power to operate the vibrator tube should be powered by AC current, and that is possibility leaking to the track. Did you change the tube?

Just FYI, I put a speaker and a couple of capacitors in a Rivarossi GG1 and it worked out very well for a GG1 horn!

@Chuck Sartor posted:

The engine won't run when the tube is removed because the track voltage goes through the tube.

I am aware, the test was to see if the problem persisted when the inverter was removed, and it did, so I assume the problem may be with something downstream of the control unit.

@Chuck Sartor posted:

The tender should not 'buzz' because you are using DC current, right? Not a AC transformer.

Yes, a standard HO transformer, which it worked fine with many times previously.

@Chuck Sartor posted:

Are you sure you replaced the capacitor with the same value?

Yes, 25v 470MFD non polarized was the closest I could get. The original wasn't bad anyways, I just figured Id try it for a buck.

@Chuck Sartor posted:

It sounds like a possible wiring error, as the power to operate the vibrator tube should be powered by AC current, and that is possibility leaking to the track. Did you change the tube?

As far as I know all of the Flyer HO trains are DC powered, I checked the inverter and it seems to be working fine. The inverter converts DC to AC to vibrate the speaker.

It could still be possible that it's a wiring error but I have checked the wiring and had a buddy check it as well, I've also re-wired it about 10 times now just in case to no avail.