Sound triggering button

Well, Lionel when they updated the support site broke this link. https://www.lionelsupport.com/...5009252014100744.pdf

I'm trying to search and find any copy of that for the 610-8632-010 or that PDF.

Found some info on this site allaboardtrains

Says it's for modern equipment and can operate bell or horn

My concern is that might just be nothing more than a reversing switch that reverses the polarity to make a transformer that has a horn button also trigger bell by reversing the polarity to the track. that means that common accessories that use common transformer or common outside rail could be a mess if that is what that device does.

Again, I don't know for sure what that button box contains inside or exactly what it does and so far searching for manuals or any details is a bust.

Quit frankly, looking at the wire gauge on it, it wouldn't get wired into my layout .

@Scotie posted:

Found some info on this site allaboardtrains

Says it's for modern equipment and can operate bell or horn

Sorry, no fail there, that is a different button. It's not the same thing

610-5906-001 Sound Activation Button 6-5906

Thanks Vernon. I have a 5906 wired into my layout so I can operate bells on MTH locos. You are right, the 8632 is different.

Crack that thing open and let's see what is inside.

Can't be worth much and Lionel appears to have washed the hands of nearly any reference to it. I honestly tried hard here searching. I went thought about 50+ pages in Lionels current support site looking for switch or button in the parts.

Nearest I can tell, it may have come with a starter set. My local friend who repairs trains had warned me in the past on some different types of these activation buttons and what they really are and how they work. I just don't have the PDFs or and actually copy of this button in front of me to test or inspect, but given it has a switch and not a momentary button, that's why I think it does a polarity switch to make a whistle button equipped transformer capable of activating a bell by reversing the track polarity.

The green wires go to your AC transformer, and the two screw terminals get wired to your track.

There's nothing but a small, full-wave bridge rectifier in there. When "activated," the bridge is switched into the circuit, and converts all AC track power flowing through it to DC for activating the whistle.

These buttons were produced for a short time in the early to mid-1990s, and came with entry-level starter sets and items like the separate-sale 6-16673 Tender with Air Whistle. Since it was assumed other components in the set or on your track at the time didn't care if they were operated on AC or DC, this method was a "down and dirty" way to activate a whistle as it was the only component that would respond to the change in current.

Due to the limitations of the bridge rectifier (I think they were 3A but might have even been lighter than that), these Sound Triggering Buttons really don't have an application beyond a small starter set.

TRW

Thank you so much. Pretty much what I was thinking, but could not find any info until your response.  It will serve no purpose on my layout, so will stow with spare parts. Thanks again, Jim

@Vernon Barry posted:

...that's why I think it does a polarity switch to make a whistle button equipped transformer capable of activating a bell by reversing the track polarity.

Close, but you're thinking of the 5904/5905 buttons that switch the polarity. The general configuration of the switch/button is the same, but the markings on the housing are different as is the application.

The 5904 came with the first-generation RailSounds 1 items (1989-1990), and the 5905 came along about ten years later (2001 or so) when some starter sets had full RailSounds but the 40 watt transformers included with them only had a method for activating one sound. This eventually led to the creation of the BW-80 transformer, the predecessor of the CW-80.

I've honestly never had an open 5904 and 5905 side-by-side, but I don't think there's any difference between the two. I suspect all that's in there is the DPDT switch for the polarity.

TRW

Thanks for your efforts Vernon. TRW has provided the answer to this fun little mystery. EBay listings of these buttons suggest there are probably a lot laying around.

@PaperTRW posted:

The green wires go to your AC transformer, and the two screw terminals get wired to your track.

There's nothing but a small, full-wave bridge rectifier in there. When "activated," the bridge is switched into the circuit, and converts all AC track power flowing through it to DC for activating the whistle.

These buttons were produced for a short time in the early to mid-1990s, and came with entry-level starter sets and items like the separate-sale 6-16673 Tender with Air Whistle. Since it was assumed other components in the set or on your track at the time didn't care if they were operated on AC or DC, this method was a "down and dirty" way to activate a whistle as it was the only component that would respond to the change in current.

Due to the limitations of the bridge rectifier (I think they were 3A but might have even been lighter than that), these Sound Triggering Buttons really don't have an application beyond a small starter set.

TRW

I actually repaired a few of there for friends.  They where 1 AMP diodes (1N4001).

Lou N

WoK