Large Scale Central

Ram 53 Sound Volume Control

Electronics
#1

The Kalamazoo 4-4-0 rebuild is getting more complex every day. (The connectors recommended in another post are working great, by the way!)

I have decided to keep the low cost theme going so I am installing A RAM 53 Steam Engine sound system. It runs on a 9V battery and only chuffs, no bells or whistles (chuckle).

It does have a very loud sound ouput through an included (but not shown above) 4" speaker - 4 ohm, 1/2 watt. I enjoy the noise when running alone, however, it is a conversation stopper when friends are over. I would like to be able to have a quiet option other than the RAM recommended ‘tape over the speaker’ fix. I remember a discussion about resistors (in the speaker wire?) but have misplaced the details. What rating should they be? Does it matter which speaker wire? Or is there a better answer?

Thanks for your help,

#2

I used a 100ohm 1 watt potentiometer, wired in series with the speaker.

50 ohms should also work if you can find one.

#3

Hi Dan,

I did some searching and found that the ‘1 watt pot’ is tough to find but did score one at the big online auction place. Thanks for your help, a variable sound level capability will be just the ticket.