PWC 773 Hudson Railsounds Problems

Sometimes that can happen when the wheels are dirty. The intermittent contact sends electrical noise into the system.

Most people clean the rollers, but not everyone cleans the wheels. Sometimes you can improve things by connecting a ground wire to the pilot and trailing trucks.

Thanks Royboy. I did clean the tender wheels and pickup rollers, but tomorrow I will try cleaning the wheels and rollers on the engine. I didn't really think about the engine contact points but I'll take your advice; that might be the problem.

Pretty sure the tender on this one has a Hall sensor.  It might need to be replaced.  - Mine was replaced under the original warranty.

If you have a battery in it, take it out.  You don't need one using command.

If you haven't already, do a complete reset of the locomotive.

Check ALL connections to the track.  Make sure they are all tight.  I have had problems with command and loose track ground wires.

Fred

As Fred mentioned above, do a reset of the locomotive -- Reset code 74.

Does the tender act-up in both TMCC and conventional modes?

If a reset doesn't fix the problem, remove and re-seat the three boards inside the tender.

Any improvements?

Lastly, contrary to what was posted above, this tender does NOT have a hall-effect sensor -- the chuffing comes across the wireless tether from the locomotive.

TRW

PaperTRW posted:

Lastly, contrary to what was posted above, this tender does NOT have a hall-effect sensor -- the chuffing comes across the wireless tether from the locomotive.

TRW

Yeah, that sounds about right.  Might have confused it with the Berk.  What I do remember was having to send ALL of my PWC locos back to Lionel  for some kind of fixes under warranty.  After the 773, I managed to get Lionel to reimburse me for my shipping costs TO Michigan for all 5 locos.  I still have the Berk, Turbine and the GG1.  Traded the F3's and the 773 years ago.

Fred

I was having a similar issue with the same loco. I would get random whistle blows.

The culprit was a crack in the insulation on one of the small black wires, near the trailing truck, that connects to the IR tether. A piece of electrical tape around the crack did the trick.

That wire might be a bit brittle and it gets moved around quite a bit through turns.

Thanks everyone for all your input. I reset the engine, cleaned the pickup rollers, checked for cracked wires, and cleaned the tracks again, but the problem still persists. I've never had this problem with this particular engine before, it just started recently. That's what's so puzzling. I've got a PWC 746 that I run on these same tracks and I've never had these problems, so I don't think it's the tracks or the Cab 1L unit. The only suggestion that I haven't tried yet is to re-seat the three board inside the tender. I will try that tonight.

I can't help Jim--I hope re-seating the boards solves the problem--but I also have the PWC 773 Hudson and I've always wondered: why does the whistle sound like a horn? Is that how a Hudson whistle sounded? Or is it the wrong sound?

(Jim, your name sounds familiar. Did you used to be on the staff of CTT?)

Cheers!

Keith

Keith, I don't that whistle is correct either. It sounds more like an air chime horn than a whistle!

I was never on the staff of CTT, but my son Rocky wrote a couple of articles for CTT as well as several automotive articles for High Performance Pontiac, Hemmings Muscle Machines, Car Craft, and Hot Rod. That may be why the name sounds familiar.

Now back to the PWC 773; I re-seated the boards in the tender and there was no difference....same problems. It seems to trigger the whistle and tower sounds going around the 42" curves. Tonight, even the brake sounds were included in the mix. The chugging sounds are momentarily interrupted also. However, when I run my PWC 746, a similar command control engine, everything works fine on the same loop of track. That would indicate it's not track related. I'll keep tinkering with it until I run out of options.

it could be the IR tether on either the Loco or Tender going out. Id put the 736 Berk tender behind the 773 and see if that stops the random sounds and then the 773 tender behind the 736 berk and see if it makes random sounds too. This should help you narrow down where the issue is.

If I remember right my JLC Allegheny had the same problem and I changed the engine IR and the issue went away.

Thanks Bruk........I switched tenders and it looks as though the problem is in the engine. I run the 773 Hudson with the 746 N&W tender and the problem persisted. Then I switched things around and ran the 746 N&W with the 773 Hudson tender and everything worked fine. There must be some problem somewhere within the 773 engine!

Jim Rotella posted:

 There must be some problem somewhere within the 773 engine!

Good to hear! It most likely is the engine IR, I'd replace that with a new one. Here is the part number for the IR.       # 6108056082

Before replacing the IR sender, simply use a digital camera or a phone camera and look at the sensor through the viewfinder.  If you see a dull purple glow, the IR transmitter is working.

OK , I will try that tonight. So will I be looking into sensor just beneath the drawbar on the trailing truck?

Yep, directly into the sensor, make sure you are lined up with it so the lens sees the IR transmitter.

Jim Rotella posted:

OK , I will try that tonight. So will I be looking into sensor just beneath the drawbar on the trailing truck?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Before replacing the IR sender, simply use a digital camera or a phone camera and look at the sensor through the viewfinder.  If you see a dull purple glow, the IR transmitter is working.

If you have a iPhone or Android make sure you use the front facing camera (Touch Screen Side) The back camera on the newer phones will not pick it up I've noticed recently. Also the IR light may show up, but it could be intermittent hence the false signals be transmitted into the tender. Tug on the wires that go up into the engine while looking at the camera. I remember checking it on my JLC Allegheny and it was lit so thinking this I didn't replace it right away, but in the end I replaced the engine IR and it was working perfectly once more.

My Samsung Note 4 picks up the IR sensors just fine.

I've got an iPhone 6. I tried last night and I couldn't see any purple glow, but maybe I wasn't doing it right. I just looked into the phone's front viewfinder while lining it up with the sensor. I'll try again tonight and I'll tug on the wires at the same time.

You could try the other camera, it's possible the iPhone 6 is one of those "newer" cameras referenced.

You can also try a tender from a similar era locomotive, if the sensors align, they should work.  The old sensors were the box under the drawbar, the newer ones are a smaller hump on top of the drawbar.  You just need to have the matching style.  Truthfully, you can leave them unhooked and just point the sensor at the tender receiver, my experience is they'll work an inch or so apart.

I realize this thread started about 2 1/2 years ago, but I thought I'd post that I finally corrected the problem. I've noticed these unwanted random sounds occurred only on the curved sections of my layout, but never on the straight portions. I turned the locomotive around and ran it in the opposite direction and the problem went away.

Back in August of 2016, fellow forum member Graz suggested that I check the wires along the trailing truck for small cracks. I looked closely at the time and I couldn't see any cracks. So I just continued operating the engine and ignored those sounds. But today I thought I'd tackle the problem once again. I re-checked everything and I found the culprit. This time I did notice a very small crack in the insulation. I could see that it was caused by the wire rubbing on one of the huge rear drivers of the 773 as it traveled through the tight 042 curves. A little black electrical tape was all it took and the problem was over.  

I thought I'd post this remedy just in case someone out there is experiencing a similar problem, because I know something like this can really drive a hobbyist crazy!

Thank you for posting this. 

Forest