Whistling tender

Funny you should ask that, I currently have around our Christmas tree a 1999 Die Cast Disney 4-4-2 with whistling tender that does just the opposite.  I blow the whistle and the engine speeds up.  An explantion for either would be informational.

Presumably your tenders have a motor driven whistle, and you are using a postwar transformer.

When you start to press the whistle button, a DC voltage is generated by a rectifier in the transformer which energizes the whistle relay in the tender. The relay points close, allowing track voltage to power the whistle motor. The motor draws power - lots of it, and the train starts to slow down. As you continue to press the whistle button all the way down, a compensating winding in the transformer is switched in to boost the voltage to the track back up. The train speeds back up.

What you are witnessing is the normal operation of the air whistle tenders and transformers.

Larry

The MTH Z4000 transformer seems to maintain the speed of the engine when you blow the whistle.

          I have two postwar engines, and the slow-down speed-up problem of the whistling tenders is so annoying, and I think almost incurable, that I just took my best whistle tender, opened it up and attached two wires to the proper points inside so that it will blow when AC power is supplied to it, put the body back on, placed the tender  in the layout on a little side track that is insulated from all track power, drilled a hole next to it and ran those two wires down under the table, attached the two wires to a really cheap Lionel 4150 transformer (about $5.00) that I mounted under the table, and then wired one of the power lines of the transformer to a switch at my control box that has a nice big button.

        So now, I can press that button, and the whistle comes on loud and long and clear, with zero effect on the speed of the engines.   Nope, the sound isn't coming from the tender that is being towed by the train, but if you put the side tender near the  center of the table, it is hard to tell the difference.

      Not totally realistic, I know, but problem totally solved.

       Also, I just got a nice Mule Head Oil Pump accessory for my layout, and after I place it on the layout, I can just wire that to the same small transformer under the table, with a second switch running back to the control panel, and operate that from the transformer as well.

       One nice thing about the little transformer, is that you can just set the voltage you want to run to these items by adjusting the lever, which will regulate the loudness of the whistle and the speed of the oil pump.  Then, you never have to touch it again.

Hope this helps.

Mannyrock

Mannyrock

I did similar 40 years ago.  I mounted Lionel whistles from tenders in two buildings with open windows, one on each train board.  I hooked it up to a 12 volt ac transformer and added push buttons one each end of the two control panels for both whistles.  The whistles have different pitches and no one can find out where the whistle noise is coming from.

Best part is I have about 20 or more coal tenders with only few having whistles and my diodes are out on all three LWs.  I have no drop in speed and whistles any time I want.  I have no trouble with CT whistles or transformers and have saved lots of money and time looking for whistle tenders.

I also added a small Bachmann Shell oil tank that comes with a diesel horn in it on each train board.  The oil tank sets about 1/8 inch above the layout so the sound can come out.  I added two diesel horn buttons near each LW transformer.

Charlie

Thanks for the info Choo Choo.

When I posted a question on the board asking whether I should separately wire  a whistle tender, you were the only one who responded and said it was a good idea.   So, I thank you for advising me to go forward with it and the result has been great!

One of the best aspects is that almost the full voltage of the small transformer is going straight to the whistle, so the speed and loudness of the whistle is always consistent.

I will need a diesel horn for the layout, and I think I will go with your separate building idea.

Mannyrock

I guess it was pretty fancy technology back in 1940.  I know I enjoyed mine

On my prewar layout I have the whistling shed on it's own feed separate from the track power. It seems Lionel was ahead of it's time!

Regarding the slow down, I think you need a diode to replace the rectifier disk if possible with your transformer. I had the same problems, but now my 1033s blow long and loud with no change in the trains speed. Before I did the diode upgrade I had the same issues with slowing down. This works with my prewar, postwar, and MPC trains. Also my Z1000 has no problems.

It's disconnected at the moment but had a similar set up on an old layout with the AF whistling billboard. Loud!