180 w power supply

Do you have a load on it? Put a couple of locomotives on the track and see what it drops to.

I took the engine off the track and checked the voltage and it's showing over 19 volts.

What is the voltage with the engine on the track. That's when it matters

Same voltage.

There are two loops and a single track.

I'm going to have to get a new voltage meter to test it again. I'll let you know what it reads then. Thanks for the help.

Model number on the 180w power supply is: JS18731 NA Catalog number:22983

Will do, thanks!

yes, you would need a somewhat expensive to an expensive meter to measure the AC at true RMS. Look for a used Fluke if you must have one.

You don't want to exceed 20 volts AC on the track for Lionel products.

I would measure the voltage at the receptacle. That may be a little high. I don't have any 180 watt bricks that exceed the 18 volt plus or minus a small fraction.

I agree with PLCPROF, it's ok. Enjoy your trains.

Your engines will be fine. What you need to worry about are any older powered/lighted train cars. For instance, I have the first run of MTH IC 18" passenger cars, I melted a whole in the floor of the vista dome with the constant 18Vac. Some K-Line cabeese have a switch for CONV/CMD, its put a diode in series with the smoke unit when running on constant AC power.

Some TMCC conversion electronics only turn on the head light for half of the sine wave just for this reason.

Carl might be on to something; the power company has to increase the voltage during the summer to account for the droop caused by for all the AC units on; if there is a cool spell, the voltage coming into your house can be on the high side.

illinoiscentral posted:

Your engines will be fine. What you need to worry about are any older powered/lighted train cars. For instance, I have the first run of MTH IC 18" passenger cars, I melted a whole in the floor of the vista dome with the constant 18Vac. Some K-Line cabeese have a switch for CONV/CMD, its put a diode in series with the smoke unit when running on constant AC power.

I can fix that for you, LED lighting.

illinoiscentral posted:

Some TMCC conversion electronics only turn on the head light for half of the sine wave just for this reason.

Actually, TMCC default runs the lights on half-wave power in command mode, that's universal if you're using the R2LC/R4LC.  When you're running a TMCC locomotive in conventional, the headlights are then run on full-wave power.

My voltage meter is not old, and I haven't used it in long time. But the voltage of my track was showing over 19 volts throughout the whole layout. That's what got me to wonder if too much voltage could harm the lionchief engines. One other thing I noticed. When my engines go around the curves it tends to slow down and then picks up speed when it hit the straights. Again, the voltage measures over 19 volts around the curves. It seems on the lionchief engines you have to move the dial up more on the speed control to get it going. Has anyone else experience this too.

Got my voltage meter to work. It's showing 18 volts throughout the track. Thanks a lot for imput on this.

Prairie Land Junction posted:

Got my voltage meter to work. It's showing 18 volts throughout the track. Thanks a lot for imput on this.

Ok, that's as it should be.

The slowing in a curve could be the wheel flanges rubbing against the rails on steamers if you have small diameter curves.

It could also be a voltage drop under load (engine on and running) due to track connections.

Run the engine that slows in the curve and try to measure the voltage behind it as it passes and perhaps in front of it as it approaches.

Let us if you have a drop in voltage and what reading you get.