Chessie Steam Special T-1, Sound problem...Fixed

The sensor can fail and stop the chuffing, but the whistle should still work.  The wires in the tether can break internally and kill everything.  Maybe you can do a continuity test on all the leads in the tether. 

Thanks John!

 I was thinking about last night, here at work(continuity checking the tether). There was no whistle at all after the above mentioned cleaning.

 To night I will go to the Lionel website and see if the tether, sound board, etc. are still available. That way I know what to order if the above checks net me anything.

Thanks again!

Henry,

If Lionel doesn't have one, you can have mine.  I upgraded my T-1 to TMCC and Railsounds 4.0.  I still have the old tether and sound board which should still work (can't test it).  Just let me know if you want it.

Thanks for the offer Alan. I appreciate it.

 I will contact you or update on this thread when get the gal checked out. How did your upgrade go and which part number items did you use? That would give me another option for down the road. (Or I could do the TMCC/RS4.0 to the Reading T-1 I have).

Again, Thank You!

The tether hasn't been available from Lionel for a long time, but MTH has a very similiar one.  Just look for one with 4 pins like the original.  You will probably need the socket too.  I took care of several of these locos for a display layout back in the 90's and these tethers failed a lot.  I had zero board failures so that seems pretty reliable.  The hall effect sensor had a lot of failures too, but that only affects the chuff. FYI, I recently had one converted to can motor and TMCC.  The motor worked very well but I had a lot of trouble with the sound system and control board.  Personally, I like the original sound better than the RS4.  There is an easy way to double the chuff rate on the board if you are so inclined.

John,

 I don't want to get ahead of myself.... But, how do you accomplish doubling the chuff rate?

 Also, would it make sense to change the speaker out to something newer? Again, these are just questions that are more out of curiosity. More important to me, is getting her working again.

 While not as detailed as the MTH T-1, I have come to really enjoy running this one.(And the colors worked out well pulling my Holiday cars around).

I Appreciate You Help.

Allan,

 Thanks for the short video clip and you link to how you proceded with your upgrades. I enjoyed reading it!

I'll have to dig out the drawing, but all it takes is a cut in one of the traces in the printed circuit board.  This was in OGR way back in the early 90's.  Let me know if you really want to do this and I'll track it down. 

A newer speaker of the same ohm rating couldn't hurt - the original isn't that hi-fi.

  I guess the first thing to do is get that baby working.  Maybe take up C&O Allies offer on his old board & tether,  Even if your board turns out to be OK it won't hurt to have a spare.  I really like that whistle on the original board.

BTW - Dick Kughn, the former owner of Lionel, was a part owner of a real T-1 and had the model done by none other than Mike Wolf.

John,

 I will let C&O Allie know that I will take him up on his offer. And, I would appreciate the information you have (at your convenience).

C&O Allie,

 I will take you up on your offer for the tether and board. Let me know what I owe you and an address. Me email is with my member information.

Thanks guys!

Henry,

No problem.  I found the sound card and I think the tether.  Would you mind opening your tender and sending me a picture of it so I can make sure I give you everything you need?  I have a box with all the old parts left over after I upgraded, but I did not mark what was what. 

Allan,

 I will try to get that to you tonight.

Thank You.

Allan,

 I will try to attach the photo here. If it doesn't work out, I'll send it to your email.

John,

 Did a continuity check of the tether. All seems well. I have tone across three wires based on the position of the armature, then the 'dead' wire rings and another does not.

"I am experiencing some technical(personal) difficulties at this time, please forgive my duplicate imaging"  

Perfect.  I have all three boards ready to go.  I will probably send it on Monday as I will be home with a sick daughter tomorrow.  I'll email you over the weekend to get your address.  There is no charge - I'm glad I can hopefully assist in fixing your problem.  

Thank you Allan!

 I truly appreciate it!  Do you have additional photographs or video of your locomotive and passenger cars? I would like to see all of you detail changes.

 Last month I was on the Lionel website trying to track down components I thought might work to add detail t the running gear. The 700E (1-700E) components came up 'not found' - unless I was not doing a correct search. I have communicated with another Forum member regarding detailing up grades to the T-1's. He supplied me with a few of the 700E part numbers and a couple of MTH part numbers. (I am still trying to get a full parts breakdown for the MTH T-1. Their website hasn't netted me anything - again, it might be me  

 I really enjoy seeing and learning what others have done. It gets me thinking about what I might want to try to do.

Thanks!

Henry,

In the link below are pictures of my upgraded/super detailed T-1:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/d...044#9595974421730044

Here are the part numbers I ordered and used (excerpt from email I sent another forum member) and how I made the "eagle":

The rods are a combination of one rod from a Lionel 700E (the upper horizontal one) and from an MTH Premier Big Boy.

Here are the two excerpts from the document I attached earlier about the rods:

"For the rods, I had a harder time finding what I thought I would need.  Looking at pictures of the prototype, I saw that the rods between the drive piston and the eccentric rod (the union link, the combination lever, and the radius bar) connected under the lower part of the crosshead arm.  I found a parts diagram for an MTH Big Boy that I had a similar setup.  I purchased those, but I also wanted shorter rods just in case.  From the Lionel page, I purchased rod assemblies for a 700E Hudson."

“For the connection to the crosshead arm, I used the Big Boy’s union link and combination lever.  For the radius bar that connected the combination lever to the expansion link, I used the Hudson’s radius bar.  I used my Dremel Tool to carefully cut the lower assembly from the crosshead arm.  I then used a grinder wheel to grind down the rivets to take the original radius arm off both assemblies.  I used a small screw/nut to put the Hudson radius arm to the leftover Big Boy rod assembly, dropping a little superglue on the nut so it would not loosen during operation.  I straightened the radius arm and opened the ring on one end so I could attach it to the expansion link assembly pin.”

For Reference:

I used superglue to attach the rod assembly to the existing crosshead arm which is the most delicate part of the upgrade (I am going to re-glue this part using JB Weld epoxy which should be stronger).  I guided the rod assembly into the existing valve stem guide and then attached the end of the radius bar to the expansion link assembly.  The screw/nut held the assembly in place by resting on top of the valve stem guide.

Overall, this was pretty easy to do once I figured out the parts to order.  For the MTH parts, I used EC-1110007 and EC-1120007.  For the Lionel Parts, I used the small rods from parts 690-700E-216 and 690-700E-217.  I had to straighten the rod to take out the bend, but that was pretty easy to do.

As for the eagle, it is actually a Woodland Scenics Goose from the HO Farm People Set (http://woodlandscenics.woodlan...ow/Item/A1857/page/1).  I cut off the head of the goose and used a file to shape the neck to be similar to an eagle head.  For the beak, I glued a bent wire in the shape of and eagle beak.

Lastly, I painted it gold using Testors Gold paint and glued it on the light.

I have the boards boxed up and ready to go out on Monday. 

I forgot to post the videos of the CSS consist pulled both by the Lionel engine and the MTH engine:

Lionel Engine:

11 Car Consist (with Powered Aux Tender):

8-car Consist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQzJ-TcObyo 

MTH Engine:

13 Car Consist (with Dummy Aux Tender):

My latest version has 15 cars. 

Thanks Allan.

 If I was a betting man, I would guess that Wowak was the other Forum Member???  

(These Reading T-1's are sweet locomotives!   )

I'm glad I'm not a betting man because I'd be owing you some money.

Allan,

 I am laughing my head off right now over your reply.

I guessed Wowak because he had sent me those numbers. And looked at them when you sent them, thinking "why have I seen these before?"

He does some very nice work looking at his threads. So I could not help but ask him questions. I have tried to look so of the items up myself, but I am not very good at search's yet. (one of those area's I am weak at with computers).

The members I have communicated with here on the forum are fantastic people. Always willing to help others out.

I truly appreciate the help and value the views of the members here!

Allan,

 Nice Video's!

Henry,

I did some research and here is the link to the 700E parts.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for parts 690700E216 and 690700E217:

http://www.lionel.com/Customer...94-8d1d-48591eea334f

For the MTH parts, go to: https://extranet.mth-railking.com/partsorder/

Then create a login username/password via the All Other link at the bottom right.  The create a new part order entering in EC-1110007 and EC-1120007.  I just checked and both parts are available for $10 each.

Allan,

 I ordered the MTH parts by way of the numbers you sent Wowak, when he sent them to me. When I tried the Lionel numbers, they came back out of stock. But, that was a month ago, so I will try again.

I did receive your email. Thank you.

John,

 You where right about the tether. I went back and checked it again tonight. I thought about what I stated here and realized it didn't make sense. A little bit of position changing, and viola - no continuity at all (red and blue wire).

 Looks like I will be looking for a substitute. Hopefully, the one from Allan will cure my locomotive illness. (If not, I will look into an MTH replacement...)

Yea, we had that problem pretty often.  The other failure point was the Hall effect sensor.  Never had a problem with the board.  That was with several engines with the same style tether and sound board, that ran for 2 weeks straight during our Christmas show each year.  Glad you tracked it down and can get'er going again.

 Since the tether checked bad second time around, I am in the process of 'reconstructing' the original. I have acquired four female pins for the locomotive side that fit into the original plastic plug. They need to be trimmed a little shorter to fit properly. Next step, finding a good size wire that will not break as easily, but will not hinder the operation of the locomotive and tender.

 I will be trying to get to this, again, this weekend. Hopefully sooner. I will let you guys know how it works out.

Glad you got it working!  Rgds the chuff rate mod, I'm out on a ship now and won't complete my tour and go home until mid-June.  Shoot me a reminder then and I'll look it up.

I don't know the answer about the battery question, I have not heard of it being done - it may need a lot of modification to the board. 

I think a better speaker would help, the one that's in it is not that good.  Just make sure that it matches the ohm rating of the old one, if you do.

Thanks John!

 I contact you then.

Safe journeys to you!

A little info on the real world Chessie T-1. It was a leased former Reading Lines T-1 locomotive painted in Chessie colors. If I am correct the Chessie system never had a T-1, they had a 4-8-4 Northern but not a T-1 Northern like Reading Lines.

Lee Fritz

Thanks phillyreading.

 The C&O's actual T-1 Class were the 2-10-4's numbered 3000 through 3039. The Reading T-1 was used after it was finished doing the American Freedom Train Tour {#2101}. C&O's 4-8-4's were class J-1 and J-1a, the 'Greenbrier'.