Tomy Trains sound station - The history, the purchase, the fix.

Fantastic!
Would you be able to record the station announcements? I think I’ve only heard one or two of them before

So for whatever reason I can't attach a sound file directly, but I can attach a Google Drive link to a file playing all 6 announcements, so here you all go

Unfortunately the sound quality isn't the best, because of course taking a direct feed from this thing isn't gonna happen, and it was never a partcularly hi-fi system to begin with, so there's that to contend with also.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kO6aVAM...sp=sharing

But, there was an added complication...

So, to try and answer the question of if there indeed was a B-side to the sound record, I reopened the thing, and looked at the disc very carefully, and after a while, came to the conclusion there is no way for there to be anything on the B-side, as there's no run-in grooves on the other side. The fact it's a transparent disc means you should see any grooves on the other side if you look at it from a certain angle, and I can't see any.

However, when reassembling it, the drive belt snapped as I tried to re-fit it to the motor spindle  



I panicked initially, but after finding a massive bag of office rubber bands, and one that happened to be a close enough fit in terms of diameter and cross-section, I was fortunately able to repair the unit.   


I have discovered at least a few quirks to the unit through using it since the original post.

Firstly, the issue with the wrong announcement playing sometimes is basically just inevitable, due to the nature of the mechanism - It's mostly fine, and I suppose that was good enough for Tomy and the purposes of a toy.

That said, it appears to work best if you press the announcement button, then wait until the audio stops [i.e, the turntable stops] before pressing for another announcement, as it seems pressing the button before that while the disc is spinning causes the wrong track to be lined up, presumably because the mechanism is built on the basis that the stylus should be starting from the dead centre, not from before.

As I mentioned before as well, it also appears that the speed does play a fairly integral role in the consistent operation of the unit, as when the speed control is set to slow, it makes mistakes more often. 

My theory is that this is because at a slower speed, the disc is unable to rotate into the correct position before the motor cuts out, therefore misaligning the disc for the next use. When set to medium or faster speeds, it seems to be more reliable.

Finally, now I'm aware that the J-31 version with an IC/microchip based system exists [thanks chrisjo!], I can surmise that Tomy probably swapped to the IC system eventually due to it's percieved higher reliability and consistency, eliminating the issue of record alignment altogether, although the fact the record-based system lasted right up to 1996 is impressive to say the least. 

Personally, however, I can't help but find the record-based system to be far more interesting overall, considering that it was really a fairly old-fashioned way of producing sound in a toy by the time this station released, and how the mechanism itself is basically using an Edison derived design from the 1890's to function. 

That, and the slightly wonky/crunchy analogue feel of the announcements just really has a charm of it's own that no modern electronic design will ever have, and for that, I think this station's going to be hard to beat