I am new to model railroading & am wanting to start the hobby when I retire. I have a decent collection of freight & passenger cars which I would like information on a good power supply. I have been looking at MRC products & I’m looking at their Tech7-760 & their 9950 w/LCD readout. Looking for any pro’s & con’s on either model. I noticed that the 9950 doesn’t have any AC output, don’t I need AC for switches?
Welcome to model railroading and the forums.
Can’t help you with the specific MRC models you are looking at, but I have several of their transformers and have been very pleased.
Before you settle on a model, have you considered DCC? It has many nice advantages, but a system do costs a bit more as do the locos.
One word of advice. Don’t by too much ahead, unless it fits a specific desire you have. I did, planning on a relatively large layout room. Son moved home before I retired enough to start building the layout. Now I have enough stuff to supply a hobby store. Set funds aside, either in a seerate account or as an entry on your computer. I set a given amount away weekly, so that when I see something I want, the funds are there.
Have fun,
Richard
I can not speak to the specific models you are interested in, but MRC does have a good repretation. I have a couple MEC power packs that are about 50 years old and still work OK.
Your power pack really is the heart of your layout. It’s the most important piece of equipment you will buy. One thing to consider is whether you wish to sit at a central location to operate your layout or if you wish to be mobile and walk around with your train. If you do you will need a walk around throttle. They are available in both DC or DCC. DCC is good for clubs and for groups of people to operate together. DC is fine for solo operators. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles but it does have it’s advantages.
perhaps others can check me on this.
It looks like the 760 output voltage is 23 VDC. HO uses something around 14V which is what the model 700 is rated for. So I wouldn’t recommend the 760 for HO.
and the 9950 is pricey ($290) and rated at 125W. That seems kinda high. the 700/760 appear to be rated at 20W.
If you haven’t already, i suggest you read up on DCC.
Big question. What scale are you considering?
You will need AC for twin coil machines.
Rich
Two, mutually exclusive, answers to the, “Don’t I need AC?” question.
- Tortoises and other stall motors, which use power by the droplet, need DC to operate - polarity controls direction of point throw.
- Twin coil switch machines (Atlas, Rix or the ancient Katsumi rocksmashers I use) will throw on AC or DC, but should be totally isolated from anything that powers a locomotive.
My solution to the latter is to use a completely separate power source for switch machines, leaving all the track power available to run the train (which could have four vertical open-frame motors and seven lighted passenger cars.) One such source started life as a wall wart charger for a now-defunct 18 volt power tool. Output is AC, but the machines receive 1/2 wave DC at about 9Vrms - enough to throw the most recalcitrant Rix, not enough to overload a tortoise.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
We can’t see the scale (as in O or HO) of your collection from here. You haven’t told us the size of your future empire. We have people that are limited in space to coffee table size and others who think their basement full of railroad is only of modest size. In terms of power needs, size matters.
Are these cars from your childhood, estate buys or inherited? Many of the rail cars of our youth have horn hook truck mounted couplers, and minimal detail. It may be worth converting some of those to proper Kadee couplers. There I go, assuming HO.
I am getting back into the hobby myself and leaning toward DCC for the sound. The choice of DC vs DCC should be at the top of your decision tree. Youtube is a poor salesman for DCC sound, in my opinion, where all the horns sound alike, the sound is too loud and all the engines blow the horn and ring the bells continously.
I would suggest hanging out here and reading every post before you get too far down the road in your buying and planning. There are a lot of talented and knowledgeable people here and us newbies have a lot to learn before we go throwing around are hard earned bucks.
Sorry, my trains are HO I have 54 freight cars, 6 passenger cars, with a SW1500 engine, a F7A&B engine set, & a SD45 powered & dummy, the engines are all Atherns. The entire colection has kadee couplers #5. Track layout I plan on making something like 9’x17’ or 11’x16’. Oh & all engines are DC so I thought I would stay with DC since it is just me.
Found the 9950 for $170.
Morris,
I put the 760 on the 4x8 HO layout I just built for my son for Christmas and it works great. It’s my hope that he catches the bug and we’ll continue to model together (he will be 8 soon). A unique feature that we’ve both been having fun with is the momentum mode which has trains accelerate and slow at scale speeds. It lets you see that trains don’t stop on a dime. For now I’m playing it safe with what I cut my teeth on (DC) but do see us taking the leap to DCC as time progresses and we eventually expand to a room-sized layout.
Enjoy the process,
Brack
I have to recall my O-27 days as a kid, and the switch machines prolly could run on DC but it was all AC, Lionel engines had relays to reverse the AC signal to run in the opposite direction. The motors ran on AC. They probably could run on DC no prob, I never tried, just you still had to do the relay bit to change directions. Selenoid relay switch machines should snap on either DC or AC, they shouldnt care as long as they got power. The slow motion machines like Tortoises use DC, change polarity you reverse the switch, they are constantly “on” with low current. Since your looking at MRC and DC you must be looking at DC operating models. AC terminals are often supplied on powerpacks for lighting and accessories which are not DC required. With LED technology you start thinking about polarities for lighting, an LED can light on AC (resistor protected) but for DC you have to know polarity. Things to think about getting into the hobby.