AC/DC mystries

Hello!

you can run your PW trains using DC control.

Now if you want to be able to operate the horn and bell you have to use AC on tracks  and sending  a +DC pulse or -DC pulse you will activate the sound.

Andre.

The Williams "True Blast I" horn was a pre-programmed grade crossing sequence triggered by the horn/whistle button on the AC train transformer (creates a + DC pulse). To trigger the bell (if there is one -- can't remember) you'd need a bell button on the transformer (creates a - DC pulse).

The E-unit on Lionel engines (E stood for "Escapement") reverses the polarity on the motor's field coil, thus reversing the magnetic polarity of the field coil with respect to the motor's armature and reversing the direction of rotation. Can motors (which power most modern O gauge and O scale locomotives) have permanent magnets and can only run on DC track power (unless there's a reverse unit or command processor board that converts track AC to DC and reverses the polarity to the motors), while the Lionel motors (called universal motors) could run on AC or DC track power because the field coil functions as the motor magnet and can change polarity.

Your locomotives will operate better if you use a higher-end transformer such as an MRC Pure Power Dual, Lionel ZW or MTH Z4000. These all produce a good, stable AC output to the track and have enough current behind them to more smoothly operate locomotives with the old universal motors.

Hope this helps.

But be aware that doing so will cause your PW horn/whistle to blow constantly.

AC alternates, hence the name. No Forward or Reverse inherent in it. Has to be

changed in the motor, as stated above. When the electric train showed up, there were

no small DC motors which could have been reversed with track polarity ("the transformer").

Since when are electronic reversing units "expensive and clumsy"? They can be

had for $40, and are quite small. Heck, for $60, you can easily put an ERR AC commander

in that old thing, and be on your way to command control. And none of them have the annoying BUZZ.

You can use a less expensive transformer to use with your Williams or Lionel engines. An MTH Z-1000, has 100 watts of power and whistle & horn buttons for the Williams and other engines to use.

Lee Fritz

Andre,

I haad the same problem after I added a Sound boaard to myengine. I'm using a ZW which does not have both Hor and bell buttons or + and - DC pulses requird for your simple sound system. Many of the post war transformers had no bell or Horn buttons, and if they did, they only had Horn . I just added a simple Lionel remote horn button to operate the bell, and used the ZW horn button for the horn. So you have opposite polarity pulses, reverse the leads of the remote horn controller untill you get both sounds working. I believe the part number of the remote horn button was either 167 and 147. Both are available for less than $10

Paul

You can also use a Lionel #6-6906 controller to add the bell. If you reverse the wires to the track you will get bell instead of horn.

Thank you everyone for he information etc. Very Interesting. I owned the GG1 for more than three weeks and finally heard the bell work, but you are right that the horn will now not work. It all depends on switching the wires from the transformer to chooses what you want, either the horn or the bell. A new transformer sounds like a good idea but there is no money in the budget for that. What I am looking for is a plan. I think that if I remove the Lionel 1044 cover, (no idea why I have this transformer since a RX 100 watt transformer that ran on 25 cycles was the original transformer that came with my set circa 1950, possibly when electricity switched to 60 cycle years ago) and put an extra push button with the wires reversed from the horn or whistle button on the 1044 transformer that I might be able to use this for the horn and bells. I put a volt meter across the line and an ampere gauge in one of the lines and the amperage of the newer locomotive is negligible. The engine has lots of power at ten volts. All in all very interesting. I still can not see why the escapement unit is not in the transformer rather than on the locomotives?

By adding an external whistle/bell controller (inexpensive), you can use the transformer to operate the horn (or bell), and the controller will operate the other function.

The reason that the e-unit in your 2035 must be in the engine, is that the motor brushes and field winding must be physically rewired in a different configuration when operating on A.C. voltage to reverse it. That cannot happen if the e-unit is outside the engine. If the locomotive were run on D.C. voltage, no reverse unit would be needed at all, but the whistle tender would blow constantly, as that is activated by a D.C. pulse from the transformer whistle button being pushed.

Larry