Question about Weaver K-4S Pacific

Thanks Mike.   It is a beautiful engine and it is a shame that not even a whistle would come stock from the factory.  I think that the craftsmanship and detail it shows would warrant the upgrades.  An engne that looks like that shoud have a whistle that just hoooowls when you want it!

He wants to go down to Aarons City Trains in Akron today to see the new store so I'm sure he will talk to them about doing the work.

Thanks Mike.   It is a beautiful engine and it is a shame that not even a whistle would come stock from the factory.  I think that the craftsmanship and detail it shows would warrant the upgrades.  An engne that looks like that shoud have a whistle that just hoooowls when you want it!

He wants to go down to Aarons City Trains in Akron today to see the new store so I'm sure he will talk to them about doing the work.

Here are a couple of pictures of the QSI Sound board piggy backed on the drive board.

These electronic drive units would be in the tender. 

Weaver upgrade to TMCC control and sound.  Click on the underlined phrase to link.

I knew if I asked here I would get the right answers.  Thanks for the detail pictures Mike and I will cetainly look for the speaker in the tender as recommended.

Is it better to purchase a auxilary car or install the sound board upgrade?  Does any one know what the auxilary cars sound like and if they are any good?  I DONT NEED TMCC just an howeling whistle and a BELL WOULD BE GREAT.  The upgrade it looks like would run $350.00????

AND how difficult is it to install for a normal guy???

Link to Electric Railroad site.  There are several options for drive systems.  Here is a link to the Installation instructions for the Railsounds only.  Click on the underlined phrases to link. It appears that it can be installed via a conventional Locomotive.  I would check with Electric Railroad to see if this is possible. Also check the sound features, I didn't see a whistle noted? See note from the instruction manual below.  Or an indication of how the sound features are triggered via conventional locomotive.    Looks like Railsounds only, is $100.  Please confirm all with Electric Railroad or with Weaver.  I believe ERR (Electric Railroad) also does install but could be wrong.   Mike CT

A couple of  notes from the instructions linked above.

For steamers, the Railsounds Commander will typically be mounted in the tender

and the chuff trigger installed on a tender truck. To have synchronized chuffing, the

chuff sensor switch will need to be installed in the locomotive, either on a wheel or

the smoke unit lever on a piston type smoke unit. A tender truck installation is

shown in Figure 6.

The Railsounds Commander will start up and operate when the power applied to the

track reaches 10 volts AC. Installing the 9 volt battery is recommended for

conventional operations since it enables sounds to continue during track power

interruptions. Additionally, when track power is turned off for more than a few

seconds, the shutdown sequence will start and play to completion.

The sounds available in conventional mode are the prime mover rev’s, horn/whistle,

and bell.

The Horn/Whistle and Bell buttons on the transformer operate the respective sounds

on the Railsounds Commander. The horn or whistle will sound as long as the button

is pressed. The bell will stay activated until the Bell button is pressed again