MTH 20-3866-1

Not an expert but....Is it possible you have proto sounds and if so check the battery.

It's a PS/3 locomotive with whistle steam.  Here's the instructions for the whistle steam.

I don't think you can activate whistle steam with MTH locomotives without full DCS. Maybe someone else will chime in that knows more. My MTH models are Railking. I know my Legacy models will whistle steam without Legacy but I think MTH is different.

Brad

Thank you for the quick reply.I found the answer by looking on youtube and saw a video.I tried to access the manual on the MTH website by clicking on the correct item # and then support but i was unable to download the manual.It is pretty disappointing that MTH sells a locomotive for more than $1000 and cannot print and include a full manual or even the small tube of smoke fluid that came with locomotives.

I was surprised there was no manual on the website, but all the steaming whistles work the same for MTH.

@joe woods posted:

.It is pretty disappointing that MTH sells a locomotive for more than $1000 and cannot print and include a full manual or even the small tube of smoke fluid that came with locomotives.

Joe,

I hear ya, but ...

If you bought this new from a dealer then it's time to go complain to the dealer.  If you bought it used from someone else then you have nothing to complain about.  Buyer beware.

Since you already tried downloading and that apparently didn't work, there's literally nothing we on the forum can do about this.  Take your experience directly to MTH instead.

Have you wasted your $1,000?  I'd say not at all.  But then again, more than anything else this hobby is about patience.  You may need to find some about now.

Mike

@joe woods posted:

I just picked up this NYC Hudson and cannot find any way to activate the whistle steam feature.There are no instructions in the pamphlet that came with the engine.There is a small hole drilled in the top of the boiler under the whistle where I put smoke fluid but when I hit thw whistle nonthing happens.I run my trains with the MTH remote and I checked through the menus but could not find anything to activate this smoke unit.Does anyone have experience with this engine and how to activate this feature.Thank you for any help.

Which MTH Hudson?   Yes, all the new MTH engines now all come with the same generic manual that is not specific to the engines.  MTH no longer makes engine specific manuals.  The last 3 engines I bought this year all came with generic manuals, of only a few pages.  But MTH manuals were never really the greatest to be honest.

MTH makes you figure it out now, lol.

My J1 was the same way.  Had to find out from MTH where the whistle steam fluid was loaded (I would have never found it).

You do have to turn on Whistle steam in the menu soft keys in order for it to work.  Unfortunately, you have to turn it on every time you run the engine as it does not stick. That's the one thing I don't care for about MTH's whistle steam.

You have to activate a 2nd soft key for the quillable whistle feature too.   

Where is the new whistle steam fluid added in the Hudsons? I have two on the way!

The hole for the fluid is right under the whistle however it is difficult to fill because the whistle is right over the hole.You need a syringe type applicator with a flexible small tip.

So the Hudson steam whistle is similar to the Reading T1's? There is no magnet top that can be removed like with the Pacifics?

Are you sure that model has a separate smoke unit and its not fed from the main stack?  Only reason I ask is previous Proto 3 versions do not show it in the parts diagrams as having 2 smoke units.  So, it would make sense nothing is removable.  But these latest models could be different.

On the J1's released in Feb the little trough the brass whistle sits in comes off and has a magnet underneath but when you look at it, it does not look removable and is pretty tight, so it doesn't look like it comes off.

@Peter Frenzel 010119 posted:

So the Hudson steam whistle is similar to the Reading T1's? There is no magnet top that can be removed like with the Pacifics?

Yes there is no magnetic dome or device to remove.Just a small hole directly under the brass whistle.

anyone have photos of their engines yet?

@Sean's Train Depot posted:

Are you sure that model has a separate smoke unit and its not fed from the main stack?  Only reason I ask is previous Proto 3 versions do not show it in the parts diagrams as having 2 smoke units.  So, it would make sense nothing is removable.  But these latest models could be different.

All of the MTH locos, O and G gauge with smoking whistle use a separate smoke unit.  I believe Lionel has a dual smoke unit to feed both the smoke and whistle, but JDS was toying with the idea of building one.
The smoking whistle feature can only be activated in DCS.

@Jon G posted:

All of the MTH locos, O and G gauge with smoking whistle use a separate smoke unit.  I believe Lionel has a dual smoke unit to feed both the smoke and whistle, but JDS was toying with the idea of building one.
The smoking whistle feature can only be activated in DCS.

That is really good information to confirm because I did not know if MTH did what Lionel did sometimes and used the main stack for both.  Sometimes I wonder if the hole for the whistle on some MTH models is just for the smoke to exit or if it's a fill hole too, like in Joes case. 

@Sean's Train Depot posted:

That is really good information to confirm because I did not know if MTH did what Lionel did sometimes and used the main stack for both.  Sometimes I wonder if the hole for the whistle on some MTH models is just for the smoke to exit or if it's a fill hole too, like in Joes case.

A hole in the standard MTH single chamber smoke unit wouldn't work for whistle steam, you need a separate fan and controls in order to run them independently.