Sound Improves on Legacy J and GS after removing strange label (edited pic - tried to get it to post)

That sticker surely would mess with the sound. Glad you found the problem. 

They are bar codes and they don't belong there in the final assembled product.   I am guessing these are used for inventory control or routing parts during assembly.  I doubt that the party that placed them on the bottom of the tender frame even knows what that grille is for or why it's a bad idea to block it.

Probably says "Do not remove under penalty of law"

My gs2 didnt have that ...

Probably says "Do not remove under penalty of law"

Everyone knows that only pertains to mattresses.  Once I removed one, and I am still in fear of the government finding out.  

Lee, Mine doesn't have that either, so it looks like you have a "rare variation".  But, in the old "collector" days of this hobby, by keeping the label on, you would have doubled the value of the loco!

Well, they are removed and torn up - the one on the GS shredding in pieces as I scrapped it off that the J's partially torn at one end.  So whatever they might have been as to rare value is gone.  I'm pleased though - the locos certainly sound a lot better now, whatever the reason those lablels were or should have been there..

Don't you oil the wheels before running them? You should.

Lee, good eagle eye, thanks for theheads up. I had an older lionel Erie pacific that had some distortion in the sound, opened it up and found the speaker a had a wire passing through the exit cone and frame, it was acting like a reed on a wood instrument.

Some speakers tend to vibrate on the frame, so I added a gasket from the speaker to the frame, this has improved some of the older sound units emmensly.

I buy alot of older engines so I immediately open them up and verify / remove the old 9 volt battery.

Not the J.  Normally, even though the stuff is supposed to be lubed as delivered, I do.  But . . . Since I was fairly certain I was going to repaint it I didn't want any oil or grease to perhaps get on any of the surfaces, and I was only going to run it long enough to make sure everything (sound, lights, forward & reverse) worked - maybe thirty minutes in all.

The GS-2, I did, but when it was turned over I missed the part of the label that was left on it - most had been torn off, but the rest wucked up under the truck, blocking the one speaker but completely out of sight unless (as this morning) I was looking for it after seeing it on the J.

Beware of the mattress label police!

Seriously, Lionel should have at least used a peel-off FRIENDLY label!   

I think they put those on  just the locos  Lee got, so he would have another "unique" topic to start.

I agree!  I've known for some time there are people in China who are out to get me and my trains!  The voices from my Legacy locos, tell me those labels are a special bar code from PLA Unit 61398 that tells the factory, "This one's for Lee, so load that special cyber attack version of Legacy."  Someday, when the war starts, all my trains are going to zoom off at top speed and crash right through the walls of my trainroom!

The labels were installed to comply with new federal regulations that require noise reduction on all audio systems.

Lee that's the first time I ever saw a label like that. Mine didn't have any sticker on it either.

Alex

OK, I printed your picture, enlarged, digitally enhanced, and the scanned it with my 0.25G dumb phone. Couldn't quite make out the first and fourth words. Something to the effect of....

 ? not use ? Simple Green !!!

Gilly

Is it 4/1/13, yet???

Strange indeed!  I've never seen a label such as that used on any of my locomotives. But the type of code used looks very similar to the codes that postal services use for routing mail. Have you checked with your supplier to see if they may have added them by any chance? Perhaps they were used to reserve the locomotives for you?

In case you'd like to try and decode it, here is a link to the USPS specification document.    https://ribbs.usps.gov/intelli...h_guides/SPUSPSG.pdf

I just scanned it.  It says: "Removal of sticker will void warranty".

Jon

(Is it April 1st yet?)

I wonder if it is possible to defeat the controlling of the sound level. I noticed on my PRR Legacy U28c that the sound levels are rather low. I just got it back from Lionel service because on of the number boards did not light up.

I was going to fix it myself, because I did not think the warranty covered lighting, but could not figure out how to take the shell off. There apparently are some hidden screws. I called Lionel Customer Service to ask them how to take the shell off and I was told that this would void my warranty so they issued an RA and told me to send it to Ohio to be repaired.

Uh oh, you just voided your warranty!

JustKiddingBear