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Has anyone had experience repairing the Lionel rail sounds 2.5 card number 589-699?  I have one that just quit working.  It was going around the layout and just stopped making sounds.  I have tried it in both TMCC and conventional, nada.

Examined the card for burn marks or arcing and saw none.  Another engine with this same board works as designed.   The two engines are a Lionel Yellow Belly (LCRU 1) and Commodore Vanderbilt (LCRU 2).  

As with any mass produced product there are usually one or two known trouble areas; this part has been around since 1995 meaning it has a long history. 

I am willing to blindly replace known issues with fresh parts in an effort to bring it back to life.  If not I am going to replace it with an ERR sound card.  

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Jeffrey

  

 

 

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I responded to Jeffrey's question directly to him, but for the record, the Lionel RailSounds 2.5 boards themselves are fairly reliable.

The failures I've found over the years tend to be in the "back end" where the switching power supply and voltage regulator reside (the two components attached to the heat sink) or at the "front end" connected to the speaker and volume control pot. Problems there usually take out one or both of the audio amplifiers, audio pre-amp and/or the PIC and ROM chips if the problem is particularly severe. With the exceptions of the PIC and ROM (programmed replacements aren't typically available), all the other components are replaceable.

TRW

PaperTRW posted:

I responded to Jeffrey's question directly to him, but for the record, the Lionel RailSounds 2.5 boards themselves are fairly reliable.

The failures I've found over the years tend to be in the "back end" where the switching power supply and voltage regulator reside (the two components attached to the heat sink) or at the "front end" connected to the speaker and volume control pot. Problems there usually take out one or both of the audio amplifiers, audio pre-amp and/or the PIC and ROM chips if the problem is particularly severe. With the exceptions of the PIC and ROM (programmed replacements aren't typically available), all the other components are replaceable.

TRW

Neat info.   I think I saved one way back with audio amp change, but later had another that that did not work.  In general they are robust units.  Why did they use 2 audio amps on these.  Going from memory but it had two chips of the same type.  G

GGG posted:

Neat info.   I think I saved one way back with audio amp change, but later had another that that did not work.  In general they are robust units.  Why did they use 2 audio amps on these.  Going from memory but it had two chips of the same type.  G

If replacing the pair of audio amps didn't fix things, try replacing the lm4861 pre-amp on the other side of the board. That's usually the next part to go. I have one board that still isn't back to life after replacing those components, and tracking down the cause isn't trivial at that point.

I'm not 100% certain why Lionel used the audio amps as a pair, but I believe it has something to do with driving both sides of the speaker. Both the predecessor RS2.0 and successor RS3 boards use the exact same set-up, before moving to more efficient designs on RS4 and above.

TRW

I have a Lionel 6-18045 Commodore Vanderbilt Hudson with no sounds.  I measured about 40 volts on one large electrolytic capacitor and 14 on the other.  The screw to the stud mount in the middle of the board is very hot.  Are the voltages OK?  I assume some component has shorted to make the screw so hot, but have not pulled to board to see what component is heating it.  Do these symptoms suggest anything to anyone?   Thanks.

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