How many Remote switches can a KW handle??

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I am curious how many remote switches a KW can handle?? I have 12 switches and i wanted to use fixed voltage on all of them and connect 12 wires to my KW…is this possible?? i mean all it does is light up about 24…3 watt light bulbs…72 watts total about…plus run 1 engine…suppose it was a dual motor santa FE F3 ABA…would this overload the transformer…if so how do i correct it…I also have a ZW…thanks

2

I have a RW feeding 15 volts dedicated power to 24 O22 switches and to 14 UCS control tracks, and they work crisply and well. But I use a ZW for the locomotives, so their power drain doesn’t interfere with this dedicated circuit.
Bob Anderson

3

Use a terminal strip (photo below) to route the power from the KW to the switches. This will make it so you aren’t trying to connect all 12 wires to one post.

A KW has 140 watts of useable power.

Chris

4

72 watts of bulb power and one train on a KW will work but you will experience voltage drop. when running the train. Your switches won’t be as snappy. It is best to have a seperate power supply for the switches phased into your main power supply. I like to designate transformers strictly to trains for this reason. Plus taxinf g a transformer to full capacity causes heat which decreases transformer life.

5

Could not say it better, 3 RAILGUY, seperate power for seperate switches and for engines.

laz57

6

Assuming 1445 or 1447 lamps, and illuminated controllers, the power per O22 at 18 volts should be 5.4 watts; but at 14.4 volts it’s 3.9 watts, or 65 and 47 watts respectively for a dozen turnouts.

7

I solved the problem sort of…I am now using my KW for just running my train engines and the ZW for the 12 switches…I have no other assessories or anything on the layout now…I have 15 assessories and 6 USC tracks i need to hook up…now how do I do this??..I wanna run just 2 trains at a time using the KW and run maybe 3 or 4 assessories off that KW…that leaves me with 11 or 12 assessories to hook up…now i have 8 posts on my ZW…Just B & C are used up for my switches…do i wire up 4 assessories to A & U and 4 more to D & U and the last of them to B & U and C & U. Do you think I need another ZW to run all my assessories?? Cause i have all high end assessories…like the lumber mill, coal and log elevators, milkman, cattle, horse, ice…and so forth…i dont wanna burn out my ZW or KW so best to spread the power out and invest in another ZW i think…what you think? thanks

8

Unless you actually need to adjust the accessories to different voltages, there is no advantage to using multiple outputs of a single (traditional) transformer instead of hooking them all to one output.

9

I am running 16 Realtrax switches on one side of a KW at 16 volts. No problem. Running them off of a set of #12 solid copper “Buss” wires running under the benchwork. Running a couple of accessories at 8V off of the other handle. May use another KW to run accessories if I add a lot more.