[Shay Gear Head]

Does anyone have any ideas how to add sound to the Lionel Thomas the Tank loco. And if so what sound model and make of sound system would you use? Thanks!

 

[Torby]

Um. You're kidding, right?

 

[lownote]

Why is he kidding? It'd be fun to add sound to one of those. Kids love sound effects


I thought for a long time about how to add sound to my homemade thomas, which is made out of a wooden pull toy. But I could not figure out where to put the speaker and sound card. It's made out of mostly fiberboard/mdf which does not "hollow out" all that well.

I'd use a small scale railways sound card--they are very small and inexpensive. The first sample on their sound sample page sounds pretty good to me

 

[Guest]

Sierra Soundtraxx (IF you Can find them) offers a nice "Peanut Whistle-Euro-Logging" card that would be a nice match....
Small Scale cards are nice and most folks really like the ease of install and use.
http://www.smallscalerailway.com/01-02.html

try this one:Bavarian S3/6 BR18.4 (European) 4-6-2 it's the last one on the list!

 

[Pete Thornton]

If this is for the kids, I'd get my hands on one of those 'Scientific Toys" train sets, often sold at KBToys or ToysRUs. They only cost $25-ish, and you get a battery-powered loco with a NOISY sound system that chuffs and whistles. Kids love them.

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Canyon-Express-Remote-Control-Train/dp/B0006N8XZK

Hopefully, you can figure out how to chop it apart and fit the bits into a Lionel Thomas. Otherwise, when the Lionel Thomas chassis dies, as I've heard they do, just transfer the body to the Sci Toys chassis and remove the pilot.

This will give you an idea how noisy they are!

 

[N1CW]

Bruce/et-al

While the Thomas engine is a bit small, the trailing cars were my target.
I used the Thomas Sound Box (6 buttons) in the trailing car.

A pair of sensors hot glue'd to the truck provided two inputs
to the sound box. 4 screws to open and solder the pair of leads
to the desired sound. There are 'test' etch pads to make the job easy.

 

[Shay Gear Head]

T-O-R,

What are the sounds that come out of the six buttons please?

 

[N1CW]

Bruce
LL - Brake squeal - 2 sec
LC - Two horn toots - 2 sec
LR - Chug Chug - 6 sec
TL - Thomas Music - 14 sec
TC - "WELL DONE"
TR - "Your a really useful engine"

 

[jaycosnett]

You could also try an LGB European Steam unit. Self-contained and easy to hook up (so I've read here). Hard to synch the chuff unless you have LGB MTS software, though. Every once in a while you'll see one on eBay (or a "Sound Tender" which I assume contains the same unit?).

 

[Paul Norton]

That sounds like my shop clock.

You should how fast our napping cats go fuzzy when that thing goes off.