Added reed switch and a couple magnets to get 4 chuffs per revolution. What do ya think?

http://vimeo.com/1828660

B&O
Joe

Big improvement in the exhaust!! The whistle is totally wrong, but the locomotive sounds much better at start-up and acceleration. Nice job.

Nice! Do you have any pictures of your layout or a webpage?

How did you do it?

I have been hoping this would be one of the first Legacy upgrade engines.

Yes I know the whistle isn't right but I like it. Not about to mess with the unique sound of this engine. Have always wanted to change the the chuff rate though. Had this idea for a long time and if I knew how easy it was to take this engine apart would have done it long ago.

Just drilled and taped a hole in the trailing truck to mount a bracket to hold the reed switch. Soldered a wire to one end of the reed switch and attached it to the wire leed from the circuit board. Shrink tubed the reed switch and stuck it in a plastic tube stuffed in the bracket. Soldered to other end of the reed switch to the bracket which provides the ground and holds the switch in place. 2 magnets super glued to a trailing wheel. As and after thought I should have experimented with the magnet placement. Different degrees apart, 3 or 4 magnets just to see what I would get. Could be interesting, maybe play a toon with the chuff beats.



Would also love this engine in Legacy. But not going to hold my breath. Getting too old too quickly to waite for the manufacturers to make what I want IF they ever do. Just making the best of what's available the best I can.

My layout is nothing spectacular. 19'x21' around the room. Built in a small section of basement under a now vacant inlaw apartment. Put it together in a few months back in 2006 just to have something to run my trains on. It does provide some operability with the yards and the wye other than running 3 trains on 3 loops.
It's built of 4' mods with moving and expansion in its' planning. Wife wants to move when she retires, which can happen anytime in the next few years, so I haven't wanted to go too far with scenery and such. The next basement WILL be bigger allowing expansion and re configureing with the mods I've built.
It's also not my main hobby and never planned to go this far with it to begin with. It just happened.



B&O
Joe

Why not place the magnets on the back of a driver. That way you can actually get 4 chuffs per revolution. If the drivers slip, you can hear it like on the real thing. So far, I have either been installing four magnets on the back side of a driver or installing a contact cam on a driver axle, with a wiper contact. Now one of the DCC companies, is using a round piece that looks like a piece of circuit board with four contacts. It is glued to the back of a driver and has a wiping contact. I plan to try that method next, when practical.

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa Marie Tahtaras:
Why not place the magnets on the back of a driver. That way you can actually get 4 chuffs per revolution. If the drivers slip, you can hear it like on the real thing. So far, I have either been installing four magnets on the back side of a driver or installing a contact cam on a driver axle, with a wiper contact. Now one of the DCC companies, is using a round piece that looks like a piece of circuit board with four contacts. It is glued to the back of a driver and has a wiping contact. I plan to try that method next, when practical.

There is no space between the drivers and the frame for magnets on this engine. Lionel used a micro switch and cam on the axle of one of the drivers. Driver slip would be great but this is 3 rail with traction tires and TMCC. The EM1 doesn't slip. Drivers maintain same speed whether the engine is moving or not. Using the trailing truck was allot easier to do than tearing down the engine to get at the axle. Can also easily put it back to origional this way.
I counted 4 chuffs per rev with this modification and I'm happy with that. I could try adding more magnets. Maybe I could get it to sound like a 50 cal machine gun.

How many 2-rail engines would it take to out pull a single Lionel EM1???

B&O
Joe

I have no idea how many two rail engines it would take. I have nine different Cab Forwards. Some of them were three rail at one time. I have installed very small rare earth magnets on the drivers of a couple of my Lionel engines. The ones that Digital Dynamics sells are very small. My Lionel SP consolidation is now 2 railed and I am still using four magnets on the back of one of its drivers. I had several 3 rail locos with traction tires. I could still spin the drivers. I normally pull long trains.

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa Marie Tahtaras:
I have no idea how many two rail engines it would take. I have nine different Cab Forwards. Some of them were three rail at one time. I have installed very small rare earth magnets on the drivers of a couple of my Lionel engines. The ones that Digital Dynamics sells are very small. My Lionel SP consolidation is now 2 railed and I am still using four magnets on the back of one of its drivers. I had several 3 rail locos with traction tires. I could still spin the drivers. I normally pull long trains.

I generally pull short trains and sometimes legs.

I'm a firm believer in the KISS principal. I could do it your way but the way I did it was much less work for the same results. I only started getting into this OS3R conversion stuff this past May. It may take me awhile to catch up to the old experts.

B&O
Joe

On the Consolidation, the only thing I had to get into the engine for, is to connect the wires, to the reed switch. The rest can be done from underneath. Joe, welcome to the hobby. What ever I suggest or anyone else for that matter, the main thing is to have fun with the hobby. All of us that have been around this stuff for a while think we have the best way of doing things. We don't really, we just think so .

I upgraded the chuff rate on the Lionel C&O scale berkshire. I posted a lot of information on this link .

I'm really happy with the results (I included a movie as well).

- Allan

Amazing. Still one of my favorites.

You done good!

Allen, I never gave grinding the magnets any real thought. I thought it would demagnetize them. That is a very good hint to know.

A long time ago when I was in N gauge I added synchronized sound to a 4-8-4 Northern. Put 4 small strips of masking tape every 90 degrees on the back of a driver. Then apply a coat of epoxy glue over that. When dry remove the tape and you have 4 bare contact areas. Now mount a small contact preferably phospor-bronze.
Now that I'm in O gauge there's plenty of room for micro or reed switches. As a matter of fact I just added sound to 2 small Lionel engines - a 1665 0-4-0 switcher and a 1872 4-4-0 General. In each case I installed the ERR reed switch and put the magnet on the valve gear for synchronized chuff.

This is the way the old PFM sound system worked for HO. It was a real deal back in the 70's and had some very great sounds except for the bell.