Can sounds be added to a legacy F3 powered B unit?

I would say yes.  The folks to ask are @Sid's Trains or @Bruk.

You just need a Railsounds Lite card and either a RCDR receiver or a tether from the receiver in the engine for serial data. Its no more difficult than adding ERR sound just using different boards.

Pete

You can do the RCDR way. But if the unit has a RCMC in it. You can wire in a RS card.

What is the product number?

@DGJONES posted:

I have a early legacy NYC B unit that I would like to add sounds to.  Is it possible and if so, how do you go about doing it?

I've done a few of them, typically it's just adding the RailSounds Lite board and a speaker for newer models.  What's the exact product number of the intended victim?

Yeah all we need to know if the product number and it will be east to know what route to go. Like Bruk said, an RCDR to drive the sounds if it is a dummy unit or tie it into an already existing motherboard like an RCMC.

Well, since it's a powered unit, I'm going to assume it already has a TMCC receiver, so we should be able to get serial data from that source.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, since it's a powered unit, I'm going to assume it already has a TMCC receiver, so we should be able to get serial data from that source.

Ah yes. It would help if I read the title 😂😂.

I missed the Legacy part as well. Edited later???? In that case you just need a Railsounds lite board and speaker. Easy peasy.

Pete

On a similar thread I have a 10th Anniversary Polar Express set has all of the movie lines except "Well Ya Coming"

Is there a way to add that line to a Old Lionchief RTR set? if no I also have the announcement add on P.E. car as well that I believe says "This is the Polar Express" & All aboard- Could I drop one of these lines & add "Well Ya Coming"?

Any Ideas?

@Sal V posted:

On a similar thread I have a 10th Anniversary Polar Express set has all of the movie lines except "Well Ya Coming"

Is there a way to add that line to a Old Lionchief RTR set? if no I also have the announcement add on P.E. car as well that I believe says "This is the Polar Express" & All aboard- Could I drop one of these lines & add "Well Ya Coming"?

Any Ideas?

You can't just add sound clips to a Lionel sound file, but @gunrunnerjohn sells an mp3 sound board that could let you do this.

Anyways let's stick to the topic of the F3 on here so we can help out Don with his idea of adding sounds.

Thanks to all that responded.  I think the item  number is 6-34512 from 2008 vol 1 catalogue (the engine has been repainted).

If this is one that can just have a board and speaker added, where would I get them and are they easy to install?

Thanks,

Don

Don, Just checked your engine. I think most of us assumed you had later Legacy, rather you have first generation Legacy. Thats bad news and good news. The radio board in your B unit won’t work with a later Legacy Railsounds lite board but it will work with a TMCC Railsounds board. Both boards have the same footprint. The B unit would work with the same Legacy Railsounds boards that are in your A unit but they would take up a lot of room and cost much more to implement. It uses three boards, each about the same size as the single Railsounds Lite or ERR Railsounds board.

While ERR Railsounds will respond to commands like your A unit, likely horn will be different and crew talk and tower come won’t be the same and likely out of sync.

If you open up both your powered A and B unit you will see the difference in the boards. To have the sounds the same and in sync you would have replace all of the boards in the B unit with the same ones in the A unit save the motor driver.

Not as simple as first thought.

Pete

Thanks for all the responses.  I do nat have the powered A unit.  A good deal was gotten on the powered B and was paired with two MTH PS1 A units that had the motors removed to become dummies (except for the lights.  All three were painted by Rusty Clinard to  match Lionels Northern Pacific dome car passenger form about 20 years ago.  It made for an incredibly attractive set and the owner just displayed the set.  We are now trying to sell the set but potential buyer wants sounds also.  They do not need to be legacy sounds.

After reading many of the replies here, I wonder if the best solution may be to locate one of the older TMCC  items where the control was in one A and the sounds were in the other.  I will start looking for one of those sound units to migrate the electronics to one of these unpowered A's

Am I missing something that might make the idea unworkable?

Thanks,

Don

Are the A units still PS1? If so you have many possibilities for sounds in conventional.

Any TMCC or Legacy sound board will still only give you horn, bell, and prime mover.

Maybe best to confirm whats in the A units now.

Pete

Since you have dummy A Units, why not just put a sound package in those?  Since you have no sounds now, I'd use the ERR RailSounds Commander with a dummy locomotive receiver.  A bonus is you can have command controlled lighting and couplers.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Since you have dummy A Units, why not just put a sound package in those?  Since you have no sounds now, I'd use the ERR RailSounds Commander with a dummy locomotive receiver.  A bonus is you can have command controlled lighting and couplers.

Exactly what parts would I need to do as you suggest?

Thanks,

Don

I mis-spoke, I keep forgetting you have a Legacy powered unit, so you'd be running in Legacy mode.

To keep it all Legacy, I'd pick up an early Legacy diesel motherboard and the matching R4LC, generic RS power supply, and a RailSounds 5.5 F-3 or F-7 sound board.  You'll have to troll the Lionel parts with a RailSounds search and find a suitable F-unit sound board for the task.

One of these should be suitable.