Joseph, I just saw your question now as I revisited this thread to refresh my memory for another re-wiring job I have planned.YES, the engine is running in conventional, The ERR sound board will activate at 10 Volts AC. But the motors wired in series will operate at half that voltage. So you maintain a nice normal speed and have great sound without the engine running at supersonic speed. I also left the two incandescent bulbs installed and added several LEDs as well to pull additional voltage. What I really like about the ERR sound board is, as it negotiates the curves and straightaways, the motive power sounds change accordingly just like a real locomotive would. It is very cool.....
Why add a ERR sound board to a Williams with True Blast 2? I can see why the series for better speed control but not the added sound. Will both true balest and err sound at same time?
The TB-II just has whistle & bell, it doesn't have prime mover sounds. In order to get prime mover, you need the True Blast Plus board, considerably more expensive.
@Quarter Gauger 48 posted:I also left the two incandescent bulbs installed and added several LEDs as well to pull additional voltage. What I really like about the ERR sound board is, as it negotiates the curves and straightaways, the motive power sounds change accordingly just like a real locomotive would.
You might consider the YLB - RailSounds Battery Replacement (RS-Lite) for this locomotive, it keeps the sound going on direction changes and for any momentary low voltage situations on the rails. The YLB is specially designed to allow it to charge on as low as 5VAC on the rails.
@RoyBoy posted:Some of the K-Line powered units had a switch on the bottom so you could select parallel or series. I think it was on their interurban units.
I have seen them on the MP-15 diesels. You can add your own DPDT switch like this if desired:
"Just how much slower (wired in series) is a Williams Loco?"
Short answer: half as fast
Long answer: not any slower
In general, the speed at any given voltage will be about half of what it was before. The old top speed was about 120 scale mph at 18 volts. The new top speed will be about 60 mph at 18 volts. But... there's a minimum speed where friction exceeds the motors' torque, below which the loco will stall or run erratically. From my testing, with the motors originaly wired in parallel, the slowest you could get it to run smoothly was about 10 scale mph-- way too high for scale coupling and switching. With the motors wired in parallel, the slowest speed will still be about 8-9 mph (a slight improvement due to some complex interaction between the two motors' cogging effects and a typical power supply.) The difference is, that minimum speed will now come at a higher track voltage. So if your transformer "starts" at 6 volts you can now throttle down to a stall without cutting power to the track.
If your goal is to get the minimum speed down to 3-4 scale mph for scale switching, you'll either need a lower gear ratio (difficult or impossible in this case), or some type of closed-loop speed control. Even with speed control you'll be pushing it. These were primarily designed as toy trains, and not for precision operation. My $.02.
My Williams upgrades with the ERR Cruise Commander have no issue at all doing 3-4 scale MPH I just had the scale GG-1 on the layout recently, still runs really well. 
The main reason that I rewired my newest Williams engine was to get full benefit of the prime mover sounds ramping up from idle through all of the speed steps without the engine flying off the track and only hearing half of the speed revs. Runs great this way, especially with a long string of cars.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The TB-II just has whistle & bell, it doesn't have prime mover sounds. In order to get prime mover, you need the True Blast Plus board, considerably more expensive.
You might consider the YLB - RailSounds Battery Replacement (RS-Lite) for this locomotive, it keeps the sound going on direction changes and for any momentary low voltage situations on the rails. The YLB is specially designed to allow it to charge on as low as 5VAC on the rails.
Excellent suggestion, would you have a wiring diagram for this addition?
Thanks,
Steve
@Rescued Trains posted:Excellent suggestion, would you have a wiring diagram for this addition?
Well, I didn't feel the need for a "wiring diagram", it's one wire! 
I've attached the documentation that comes with the YLB to this post, as you can see, pretty simple.
YLB Rev 1.2a Documentation.pdf
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I guess I'm not understanding the situation. I wasn't aware that a Williams True Blast plus had a battery on board. I thought your YLB was a modification to keep the sounds alive during F-N-R maneuvers. Sorry.
Steve
@Rescued Trains posted:I guess I'm not understanding the situation. I wasn't aware that a Williams True Blast plus had a battery on board. I thought your YLB was a modification to keep the sounds alive during F-N-R maneuvers. Sorry.
It doesn't, I thought we were talking about the ERR board as a replacement for the older TB-II board with only the horn and bell. I looked back and see that was @Quarter Gauger 48 that went with the ERR board.
They run pretty “scale like” and smooth, series wired. Especially in multiple units......
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Videos (1)
This is a Williams rewired in series, and the ERR board installed'.. The ERR sound board responds to track conditions and adjusts the sound to that condition. a Short video to demonstrate... Notice, re-wiring in series does, and will not slow the engine. Instead, you have a smooth 1MPH, no jerking, up to full speed......
I just finished upgrading a members Weaver Daylight GS 4 with a ERR Cruise Commander and railsounds commander. It not only crept along at slow speed, it was smoothly going through the speed steps when programmed with R100 on a Cab2. The chuff and synchronization was also in step.
When just doing the motors in series on E unit controlled Williams, it is better but nothing like upgrading to ERR CC. Our club has about 25 Williams conventional we run on the public controlled tracks wired in series.
I want to thank Ted for bringing this topic up, and I want to thank Roy Boy for explaining how to do this change over so clearly. I went out back and tried it with my Williams U-boat and it worked really well. Tomorrow I’m changing a BL-2 over as well. If I want to double head those two, is there a way to lock them in forward? I see no switch or lever a’la lionel units.
there is no way to lock them in one direction. to get one of mine to run " backwards" i reversed the motor leads when i was doing the series wire job. that way when one starts in forward initially, the other starts in reverse. since what you want to run are different models, run them together about a foot apart to make sure they run at the same speed before double heading them. if one is noticeably faster than the other it could damage one of them.
Sounds good, was wondering how you got the one to run backwards and the others forward. I’ll give the one foot space a try...
Hello all. I’m not quite understanding. Only one of my Williams F-3 is powered, it does have two motors. Sections of my trackage did have a voltage drop. I’m using the Lionel fastrack. My layout is seasonal The Williams were a gift from my Brother and I do like them.
@Anthony J posted:Hello all. I’m not quite understanding. Only one of my Williams F-3 is powered, it does have two motors. Sections of my trackage did have a voltage drop. I’m using the Lionel fastrack. My layout is seasonal The Williams were a gift from my Brother and I do like them.
The powered unit has two motors in it.
What transformer are you using? Some of the Lionel post war transformers have a secondary connection. Instead of 7-15 volts, they can put out 0-11 volts, and the Williams locos will love that.
OK I’d like to thank everyone for the help with the wiring. I did the job with the wiring, it does make a little bit of a difference. The other day I a pulling 8 cars, today I’m pulling 10 cars. The train doesn’t go slower, it has just a little more power even in a voltage drop section of the tracks. Williams locomotives like to fly, I’m not into flying at all. I do love the Erie RR and all it stood for and where it went. Let’s face it. Back it the day if you wanted to go from New York City to the Catskills of NY State. Before the Stagecoach it took about 5 days to get there. When the Iron Horse was introduced, it took about 24 to 30 hours to get to the Catskills of NY. All the railroads across the country did their part moving people and freight across this nation.
Gentlemen thank you again for all your help.
