I have been thinking about but not finalized converting to DC. I only have one modern steam engine with a whistle which a fan type. So it would have to be disconnected. My reason for thinking of going DC is for running multiple units. I’m assuming that I can keep the smoke units still hooked up. I think if I really got creative I could add in some more switches so I can run these units off ac or dc. Running to dc I think I would basically be bypassing the little circuit board. On one of my 4-4-2 steam engines I have mounted an on/off switch for the smoke unit on the back top of the tender. Easier I think would be to make a small board and mount switches in the front of the steam engines cab. I don’t have the money to add Lionel command controll to my engines. I have never looked into high powered DC transformers. I remember in electronics class (27 years ago) a circuit can easily be made to convert AC to DC.
Boyd, I’ll answer both of your questions. As far as trucks (via another posting) in my experience, the Timken type made by K-Line and used on the “Train-19” series of cars are the very best of the modern made trucks. The couplers on these work better than any previously made by K-Line, and they are lower. On the “Train-19” cars, you’ll notice when you compare them to the K-Line “Classic” cars of the same exact type, “Train-19” cars sit lower.
These trucks are hard to find now as separate sale items, and I do not believe K-Lionel is using them on the K-Line by Lionel cars… looks like they are using the prior K-Line die-cast truck from the “Classic” series.
Everyone’s trucks are slightly different and I’d recommend you try the trucks from everyone, and then you’ll find out what works best for you. By the way, I like Lionel plastic trucks a lot, and as long as you remove the rivets and remount them with a truss screw and a lock nut, you can run shorty MPC cars at the beginning of a train with NO DERAILMENTS. Weight is certainly a factor, but the way the trucks are mounted is far bigger… you need to get rid of the loose truck wobble that is so common with plastic trucks held on by rivets. Get rid of the wobble and you get rid of derailments.
Now on DC, I run my layout on DC power. Most of the non-command, modern can motored locos will run on either AC or DC current. What I discovered by accident, is that these lower-end locomotives actually run better with the circuit boards removed and on DC current: they run smoother, slower, more consistant and a little more quietly. I do happen to have several 4-4-2 Lionel steamers. If you leave the board in and run on DC, you do not need to disconnect the whistle. By chagning the track polarity (via the direction button) you can make the whistle blow without changing the direction of the locomotive so long as it has it’s circuit board direction unit in it.</
Since your purpose in running with DC is to make double-heading easier, you will not want to have an e-unit active. So your idea of switching the electronic e-unit out of the circuit is the way to go. Except that you may want to be able to run your multiple units with some cabs forward and some behind. To be able to do this, you can, in DC mode, replace the e-unit by a DPDT switch for reversing voltage polarity to the motor(s).
To solve this same problem with universal motors in older locomotives, leave the electromechanical e-unit in place and just put a bridge rectifier upstream of the motor field winding. Then, when you get the direction the way you want it for a particular train, shut off the e-unit and control direction with polarity of the track voltage.
Creating DC from multiple-output train transformers is a problem, since the rectified outputs do not share a common return in the same way as the original AC outputs do. You are limited to Brianel’s solution of using multiple single-output transformers, like the 1033.
I just thought of another idea: while still operating in AC in my newer DC can motored engines mount a switch inline between the circuit board and the can motor. Use this switch to reverse polarity on the can motor.
I don’t see what that would accomplish. You get the same effect by interrupting the track voltage a couple of times.
I’ll explain more. 2 newer DC can motored Lionel steamers running on a.c. coupled together multiple unit. They are not in the same sequence of Forward, neutral, reverse. One is in forward, the other in reverse. I think it would be a dpdt switch I would mount inline between the circuit board and the can motor. So the engine that wants to go backward I flip the dpdt switch and now its going foreward. Not all of the newer can motored Lionels automatically start in forward after they have sat for 30-60 seconds whatever time limit that is.
That will work if one is in forward and the other in reverse, as you say. However, it is more likely that one will be in neutral and the other not, in which case flipping the switch won’t help. But another option is to put a normally-closed pushbutton in series with the pickup. Then you can simply step the e-unit of one locomotive until they match.
But in some parts of the layout I can’t reach a locomotive if I mounted a SPST switch on it.
Now I’m leaning towards going DC. I bought some DPDT switches at Radio Shack and then looked around on the net for a way to wire them to reverse a DC motor. I found one diagram and then my computer locked up. Now I can’t find that diagram. Anyone have a drawing or diagram?
There are many ways to do it. Here’s one. There should be 6 terminals on the bottom of a DPDT toggle switch:
1 2 3
4 5 6
Connect 1 and 6 together and to one of the motor terminals. Connect 3 and 4 together and to the other motor terminal. Connect 2 to the locomotive frame and 5 to the pickup.