Obtaining Lionel Railsounds Boards

Maybe give PAPERTRW on the Forum a shout.  I think he is a regular seller of Lionel Railsounds boards.  I bought a nice one from him for a custom Alco project.

@PaperTRW

Go to lionelsupport.com. Under replacement parts, put in the item number of the engine that has the board you want. Look at the tender parts are order the board.

It will say contact Lionel to order. If it doesn't say that just add it to the cart and check out.

Pete

2017 production would use the UBER board.  I see the following Railsounds boards listed, but you have to call and ask to order:

691RSL3440 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / NP 684686 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3441 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / NP 684687 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3442 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / NP 684688 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3443 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / SOUTHERN 684689 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3444 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / W&LE 684690 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3445 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / AMERICAN RR 684691 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3446 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / RF&P 684692 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3447 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / PM 684693 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3448 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / PM 684694 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3449 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / L&N 684695 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3450 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / W&LE 658810 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order. 691RSL3451 RAILSOUNDS LITE / BERKSHIRE / NP 685363 $79.00 Must contact Lionel to order.

Now try getting a live person on the phone to order these.  Good luck

Yip Gary getting someone on the phone is a issue.  I'm trying to still get through myself for another reason - hopefully as winter wanes it gets easier.

Jim

I was on hold for 55 minutes today. Glad I wasn't on my house phone...

It is often a challenge to know which bell or whistle is really encoded on these Railsounds Lite cards. It's not like Lionel has engine sound files on their website you can listen to before you purchase, like MTH does. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a Youtube video of a particular engine in operation, but that's hit and miss with so many variations.

@GregR posted:

It is often a challenge to know which bell or whistle is really encoded on these Railsounds Lite cards. It's not like Lionel has engine sound files on their website you can listen to before you purchase, like MTH does. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a Youtube video of a particular engine in operation, but that's hit and miss with so many variations.

I know what sound file I want, really any of which have the NKP 765 whistle.

I am also under the impression that you have to trade in a board to be able to get a new one, is this true?

Nope, I order RS-Lite boards all the time, never traded anything in.  They used to do that, but they're not doing it anymore AFAIK.  I've bought a few RCMC boards as well, no trade-in, just ship you the board.

I suspect that some of the "must call Lionel" for stuff like the RCMC and RS-Lite is because they're custom programmed, and they don't have any on-hand with that programming.

That's good to know. I like the current sound, and would like to keep it on hand to switch back and forth.

Bruk orders them as well for his legacy conversion with no questions asked.

Ryan of Lionel in his weekly how to video on FB mentioned the call center, why there working remote your phone call or email will be answered.  Yeah right Ryan, have you tried lately????

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I suspect that some of the "must call Lionel" for stuff like the RCMC and RS-Lite is because they're custom programmed, and they don't have any on-hand with that programming.

Maybe, but there are some engine where you can order RCMC or RS lite boards  online.  It think it was a policy change and they never went back to update the older parts list to do away with “must call Lionel”.  Which would save everyone a bunch of time

Correct, my "guess" is they have those already programmed on the shelf.  If they have to program them, then they probably go pull a "blank" and program it for the order.  I reason this as I know of twice that an RCMC has been ordered and came with the wrong board, there are several versions of the RCMC.  I'm guessing they programmed the wrong board...

I believe the policy is while an engine is under warranty, Lionel makes you call to get the boards. Once the warranty is up you can generally order them online without having to call. Indeed RCMCs and Railsounds are programmed. That can account for some of shipping delay if you order a particular RCMc and a tech has to program that version.

Pete

@Jayhawk500 posted:

I was on hold for 55 minutes today. Glad I wasn't on my house phone...

I called every day this past week, and sat for 45min to 2 hrs. On Tuesday, I sat there with my house phone on hold (2HRS 5MIN), and my cell phone on hold (1:37min), neither got picked up. I honestly think that nobody is manning the phones, for whatever reason. I would be curious to know if anybody got thru this past week? I had questions, but finally just gave up and placed my order anyway.

Oh yeah, I emailed "Talk to Us" also!

@GeoPeg posted:

Oh yeah, I emailed "Talk to Us" also!

So did I, still waiting for the reply. I don't believe its the pandemic anymore.  But I'm sure that's the excuse that will be given. Customer Service is the pits. But they know they have us by the short hairs.