Will VCO Mother Board work with Steam

I've never seen one of those used with steam, but it sounds like an interesting experiment.   I expect that you'd want a chuff switch for realistic timing on the chuff.  Remember, the prime mover sounds keep running a bit after you stop, that would sound pretty silly for a steamer!

I ran a TAS UCUB with a vco driving the RailSounds board for a number of years.  There were two pots for adjusting chuff, one for start and one for upper end/max rate.  It wasn't synchronized but I was more concerned with a pleasant sound than accuracy.

The UCUB was quite different than the stock Lionel VCO.  The UCUB was actually designed with steam in mind.  I don't think the Lionel stock VCO would sound all that good with steam.  Of course, it's simple to wire up and try it, but I suspect it'll be a bit odd.  Of course, you wouldn't have the smoke synchronized with the chuff either.

VCO was attached to the sound board not the UCUB itself.  This was the "daughter" board that the Lionel RS boards plugged into.   Not sure where it came from other than it was part of the RS kit for the UCUB (you could use a reed switch/magnet or a VCO).  

I had two VCO's from Digital Dynamics and neither was physically the same.  One was in a diesel and the other a steamer (both were used with the older L shaped LCRU) and RS 2.5 boards.  There was nothing on any of these boards to indicate their source.  All three worked fine.  I only switched over to the reed switch/magnet with the ERR products.

I'd have to see a Lionel diesel board with a steam RailSounds card in it and check the operation before I believe it's going to sound good.  Normally, the VCO is for diesel and the magnet is for the steamers.

The TAS EOB boards timed the chuff from the flywheel tach, as well as MTH PS2/3.  The TAX SAW only uses the chuff switch.  The TAS UCUB II was specifically for PS/1 upgrades, and I have never worked on the original UCUB.

I have only installed one DD board, and it seemed almost impossible to get to Ed when you wanted parts or had issues.  With that in mind, I generally steered clear of the DD stuff.

The ERR stuff all assumes the chuff switch for steamers as well.

I think we need a video of how this sounds related to the motion.  If it's anything like MTH PS/1 with their chuff sounds, I doubt I'd want it.

UCUB 1 could be "tuned" to sound decent.  Never worried about chuffs per revolution or accuracy of timing of chuffs, just that it sounded nice.  I'm only replacing it because part of the wiring harness is damaged and used a ribbon cable for one of the runs.  I think the VCO was floating a piece of foam tape on top of the RS boards which in turn were floating on more foam tape on top of the UCUB itself.  Only thing missing was some duct tape and bubble wrap.