Troubleshooting railsounds

That engine is around 25 years old already. Something that old needs to be opened up and electrical connectors unplugged and re-seated for starters.  I don't remember the RS setup in that engine as I no longer have one. It may be modular, with plug-in boards, or it could all be on a motherboard. 

You'll have to inspect connections, connectors, and various solder joints to see what you can find. I've had success on some of my Railsounds modular boards by removing and re-seating sound chips along with re-melting the solder on the main board connectors. Over time, dirt & corrosion coat connections and exercising them by movement will sometimes bring things back to life.

Thanks for the tips.  She is an oldie but a goodie.  Does this seem like a problem that you md start checking in the tender or the loco?

By memory, I believe that engine had a four or five pin electrical tether to the tender; if so, the electronics for the Railsounds should be in the tender. 

Also be sure the tether itself is showing continuity on all pins/wires to the engine.

 The bell and whistle still work perfectly.  

How about a code reset?  unfortunately I forget how to do it...

How old is the battery? My rail sounds steam and electric both, act all kinds of crazy when it gets low, whistle always works though. (board #s unknown... if they die, they die, I don't care much for most sounds myself)

When I popped the tender shell off, I didn’t see a battery, I’m guessing that the battery was needed in later versions of railsounds that offered sounds as power was removed.

As for a code reset, this loco is conventional, pre-TMCC.

I have this problem once in a while with my older steam engines.As D&H said open up the tender and re seat all connections and board plug ins it solves the problem for me.I have found boards completely un plugged.Nick

Railsounds doesn't need a battery to function, so don't worry about that.  Besides reseating the tether plugs and the sound and power boards in the tender, I've found that many older units need the sound chips reseated as the contacts develop oxidation over time.  You'll need a PLCC chip puller to do that job, don't pry at them with a screwdriver or similar!

Guys,

The OP's 6-18009 NYC Mohawk uses RailSounds 1, so there aren't any codes to reset, chips to pull, batteries to check, boards to re-seat or anything like that.

First up, check the switch on the bottom of the tender frame. One position has full sounds, the other eliminates the background steam chuffing sounds. Be sure the switch is set correctly.

If the above doesn't help, a little more info is necessary. Does the locomotive give the initial "start-up" steam release when first powered up? If it does, then there's a good chance that the hall effect sensor -- which tells the sound system that the locomotive is in motion -- on the one tender axle is bad.

If you don't get any steam sounds at all, even with the switch set correctly, then chances are the board has gone bad. This is a known failure mode for these early boards.

I hope this helps.

TRW

Thanks TRW, you’re spot on that this is a railsounds 1 setup.

i tried flipping the switch and I didn’t get any change from the unit.

its not making any steam noises at all, including the startup steam release.  What is odd, after it’s been running for a minute or two, I’ll occasionally hear a noise, almost sounds like crackling, but nothing comes of it.