Post war horn

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn

Since we are talking about a horn, I am  assuming it is a diesel. Do you have a D cell battery  in the locomotive? The horn button activates a relay  that closes the circuit. The battery is what actually powers the horn mechanism.

Kurt Alan posted:

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn

The DC voltage that the horn control applies to trip the horn relay.

Rusty

Kurt Alan posted:

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn

when you hit the button to blow the whistle/horn, it shoots a charge a DC through the rails and activates the relay which in turn blows the whistle/horn.

if the relay does not close that extra charge of DC tends to make the train go faster, kinda like pushing the accellerator zoom zoom

What transformer.  If it's postwar. Most likely the rectifier is shot. And the upgrade is a diode. I think 40 amp 22o volts stud type diode. That's for a zw.

The reason the train speeds up is a PW transformer switches in an extra winding of around 6V to account for the extra current draw of the horn.  This was really needed for PW whistle tenders, they have an AC motor that sucks a bit of power, so you'd slow down if you didn't get the extra "shot".  The whistle button on a PW transformer is a two-step operation.  When you first start to move the control, the rectifier is switched in to pick the horn relay.  As you move the control a bit more, a parallel resistor is switched across the rectifier to provide more power for the horn while still retaining enough DC offset to keep the horn relay energized.

As mentioned, with a diesel, the battery supplies the horn voltage, so the train speeds up more as the anticipated extra power drain of the whistle tender is not present.  The likely reason for the horn not to blow is either the whistle rectifier in the transformer is going bad or the whistle relay is not working correctly.  Of course, if you don't have a battery in the diesel, or the horn itself is defective, that's a different story.

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn  Thanks for the info, Kurt

Kurt Alan posted:

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn  Thanks for the info, Kurt

Thanks again, Kurt

Popi posted:

try blowing horn with locomotive in neutral

I'm away from my train set right now, what will that tell me if it doesn't work.  What makes the train go faster when applying the horn  Thanks for the info, Kurt