Arriving in the 1982 catalog, the Electronic Sound
of Steam in 50' Box Car(No.957) replaces the Chug-Chug Sound in Box Car(No.902).
A fairly
sophisticated piece of electronics when compared to the rest of the TYCO accessories line, this item was a typical 50'
Box Car shell that rode on a frame the housed the sound eletronics. The sound is produced by a small electronic board
connected to a small speaker. This is all powered by a 9-volt battery, which also rides inside the car. One truck is geared
to the sound device and that provides the unit's ability to produce sound appropriate to the speed of the train.
TYCO offered this accessory only in the B&O scheme shown
above. Note the paint differences in the B&O scheme for the pictures presented. The top image of the boxed set is from
my own collection. The other image is taken from a TYCO catalog. Of the two examples I have, both look like the car in the
boxed version at the top of this page. Since the car is the standard TYCO 50' plug-door box car, you could swap shells with
any 50' car.
Introduced in 1982, this accessory is never included in train sets, as the Chug-Chug Sound Box
Car often was, and is a fairly rare piece among TYCO items. The Electronic Sound of Steam in 50' Box Car
is seen in catalogs from 1982 through 1990.
See TYCO's Electronic Sound of Steam in
Box Car in Action...
