Williams True Blast Plus

Wow! That does sound great. I have a -9 and an SD90 with TBP and they don't sound that throaty, I wish that they did, I believe its partially due to engine type though.

Jeff 

Woke up around 2am Maui time and saw your layout. Nice to see a Williams/Lionel layout. Will look forward for more videos. What a fun layout your building. Thanks Don

Ok, for the electrical geniuses here..... thoughts of wiring this:

https://hennings-trains.shopli...lsounds-batt-re.html

in parallel with the power into the TBP sound board to keep the sound going when switching between go, and go the other way? there is no input on the sound board for a battery like on the lionel version so i would think to parallel it with the power in wiring. however im assuming on the YLB the red and black are meant to be outputs so what would happen when it sees track voltage there?  im sure im probalby the first to attempt this but before i let the smoke out of the boards looking for some thoughts. thanks in advance.......

Chris

haha, thanks, well for that matter, i wonder if the input to the sound board from the locomotive board actually is DC after all....... could unplug it and pop a meter on there....... 

You'd have to add the DC keep-alive to the TB board after the circuitry that detects the DC offset on the rails or you'd have continuous horn.  The AC track voltage goes to a offset detection circuit to decide whether to blow the horn or ring the bell based on polarity.  I never spent the time to see if you could find a place to add a large cap or battery.

= no this is not so simple...... thanks for the information John......

Chris

See my signature for the proper sentiment.

Actually, with some practice, and cat-like reflexes, you can trip the WBB E-unit without interrupting the TBP prime mover sounds...

ok, another question for the electrical brain trust. I have 2 NW2's.... well another two that are permanently MU'D together.  one only has the TP2 unit. instead of installing another TBP unit, what about removing the TP2 and  wiring the speaker in one locomotive in parallel with the speaker in the "master" locomotive?  will this be too much to drive from the unit?  thanks!!

Change the speakers to 16 ohms instead of 8 ohms and it'll work fine and not overload anything.

Does anyone know  where TBP steam unit can be purchased? TrainWorld sells the TBP Diesel version. 

Hey John, what would happen if I didn’t change the speakers and just wired two in parallel?

Try it, it's not my board that might release the magic smoke.

Hahaha yes so long as the good smoke stays in! You can only let the bad smoke out! Was curious if it was more of a fry the speakers or fry the board thing. So how bout a little education. I’ve wired piles of airplanes but never played with speakers. Why would you double the omage of the individual speakers if adding another speaker. I get ohms law but not in how it’s working with a speaker. Thanks in advance!!!!

The board is rated for an 8 ohm impedance speaker load.  The 8 ohm impedance limits how much power is demanded from the board's audio amp.  If you parallel two speakers,you have a 4 ohm impedance speaker load.  That will double the load on the boards audio amp.  Given that I doubt it has any limiting built-in, it will overload the amplifier.  Do that enough and you'll cook it.  It really is ohms law.

Makes sense, thanks John!

Sounds great!

I assume that is with the volume all the way up?

I just got my first TB+ equipped engine and the sounds are so quiet you can't hear them if the train is moving.

I will have to open it up and turn up the volume.

I had the engine open once and somehow missed the volume adjustment.  The engine rattled so I did not want to power it up until I knew what the rattle was.  Turns out one of the windshields fell in to the engine.  I will have to glue that back in.  When I have it open for that I will turn the volume all the way up.

I suspect it is just bad luck but my last few WBB purchases have all been "Close, but no cigar" when it came to quality control.  The dummy that came with this engine had a truck that was about to fall off.  Turned out to just be a loose screw.  I had a PA dummy engine show up missing that screw.  In spite of many calls to the home office in Philadelphia they never managed to send me a correct replacement for the missing screw.   I hope it is just my bad luck but these things really are a bring down when you are trying out a new engine.  I expect to have to work on used engines.  I would prefer for new engines to actually be "Ready to Run".

@UnclePeteRR posted:

Does anyone know  where TBP steam unit can be purchased? TrainWorld sells the TBP Diesel version.

I don't believe there is one.

John

@Craftech posted:

I don't believe there is one.

John

Well, John is probably right!  The latest Bachmann catalog...2022...in the Williams section (last page) lists several diesel TBP packages...but NO steam.  Bummer.