Railsounds audio boards

Thank you for the Chicken Little report.

I have a nice supply of RS4 and even RS5 boards.  Maybe they'll become like gold.

 

I needed a RailSounds 4 board for the 2000 turbine.  Lionel did not have it in stock.  So they took a blank Railsounds 4 board and programmed in the appropriate sounds files into it.   As long as they have RailSounds boards and the original sound files, they should be able to burn a new board if needed.

I bet to differ with you..Like real cars ,when a manufacture quit making a car..they must keep in stock of parts for 10 years or so....thats the law...And I dont think Lionel will stop stocking parts to these railsound units..MTH still can burn the new sound chips for there proto1 sound units..

I also think these will be available for a lot longer then a couple of years, and the used market is still pretty active as well.

 

Well, does Lionel require the return of the RS4 board to allow purchase of a replacement? I know they do with RS5 and Legacy boards.

Lionel has thousands of parts that are out of stock and no plans to produce any more. So, they don't have to stock parts for older engines.

Might be a lot of shelf queens and door stops in the future. Maybe just a lot of conventional engines for cheap with no sound just a reverse unit.

OR because of the "universal" china drive syndrome... other sound/reverse systems will be in play too! this would minimize the "door stop" sydrome.

 

Nope, I've purchased a number of RS4 boards.

They do not want old boards back.  The only time any manufacturer wants old boards back is for warranty boards.  If you pay retail money for a non warranty board, it is yours and the junker also. 

I think Lionel still wants either RS5 or Legacy audio boards back regardless of whether they are under warranty.

Nagative on the return boards.   

So, are you saying that anyone can purchase RS5.x and Legacy audio boards complete without returning the originals?

RS 5 and Legacy have the "must contact Lionel" flag and probably require exchange.  RS 4.0 and earlier are available, no swap.  Note that some are now just "generic", aka earlier specific boards are not listed or the board comes sans processor and sound chips, aka you swap out your old chips into the new board.

Don't need one for most rs5 boards either.legacy you still do

Actually, most of the RS5 boards still say "contact Lionel", so I'm not sure what the requirements are.

 

Mike R. announced several years ago at one of the SS training sessions that Lionel would no longer offer the RS5 boards for sale. Seems that an individual was purchasing  a large supply of them. Mike did not like that so he shut it down.

Guys, my situation is a bit different as many board  items are stocked and I wanted to get everyone an accurate answer from Lionel.  If I need a board, we have them available. Here it is.

 

"Marty,

We can sell outright Railsounds 4.0 and 4E.  Anything above that
must be exchanged.  If it states must contact lionel it is either limited, for
vision engines, or requires exchange.

Thank You,

Lionel"

Thanks Marty, that jibes with my understanding as well.

That's exactly what I thought.

The RS 4E UP/Mikado says on the Lionel site to call. I was wondering what that entails if I ever needed one...

Anything with Mikado requires special treatment....G

Thanks. I'm getting another one of these engines with no sound. Hope it's not the RS board.

i'd just snooped around lionel parts..was looking at the new T1 trainmasters duplex sound board...WOW!!! 100 and its a 6.0!!!-RS6??..said contact lionel for that one..

RS 6.0 is Legacy RailSounds.

I guess you have to talk to the boss. I asked about a Mikado railsounds board and the girl was just "we don't have one, call again in a few weeks". I asked do you normally stock these. And she said "oh...the last one we had was in 2011". Silence. I thanked her and figured i wasn't going to get any real info.

I think Legacy engines also use RS 5.5 and RS 5.5LITE from what I have seen.

 

Rod

Rod is right, it depends on the vintage and model.