This year I want to have two loops of track around the tree, one fastrack and one MTH realtrack. No sidings or accessories, just two trains running around. On the inside loop I’ll have a prewar 259e, outside a 2353 F-3. To save on clutter and wires can I power both with a TW using a rheostat on the acc. posts? I heard the TW has two seperate transformers inside, one for trains and one for acc. Is it 175 watts total or each? Thanks, Denny
That should work fine. The 175 is total; but Lionel recommended that you draw no more than 60 watts continuously from each transformer.
No problem with the 259 on the rheostat… but continuous running with the 2353 on the throttle might tax the TW to it’s limits. It might take a while to heat up, though, as the 259 on the rheostat won’t give off much heat inside the case.
Rob
I don’t have any horizontal-motor F3s. But, for what it’s worth, I just measured my 2383 ABBA set (two vertical motors) at just under 5 amperes, which is the maximum continuous current that Lionel recommended for the TW.
I’ve run the 2353 on the TW before with no problems, and the extra loop on the acc. side shouldn’t add any load? Thanks
It will probably get somewhat hotter inside the box; but your situation is better than with the usual single transformer.
A significant amount of the heat that a toy-train transformer makes is due to core saturation exacerbating the normal magnetizing current in the primary. This will be present even with no load on the transformer, which is why they get hot just from being plugged in. It’s probably not practical for you; but reducing the primary voltage a little makes a toy-train transformer run a lot cooler. Depending on age, they were designed for 115 and even 110 volts; so today’s (nominal) 120 volts is a bit of a stress for them. I run mine from a big isolation transformer that has taps for 110 and 104 volts. Postwar gets 110, prewar gets 104.
There is a way to rig a small autotransformer to do this; but anyone who knows how to do it safely doesn’t need me to describe it.