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I have been toying with the idea of fitting some of my locomotives with electro couplers. I run conventional and even though I have 1 DCS engine I don't want to go that route.

 

The idea I had was based on Lionel's flying shoe electro couplers, of which I have a number of. Some engines I have do not even have a bell, so if I used the same principal as a PW Lionel horn with relay, but reversed polarity, and used the relay to activate the coil on the coupler. This would be operated with the bell button. I would need to use a small micro relay to fit into some of the tighter locomotive bodies, but I see no reason it shouldn't work. That relay doesn't know if it's a horn, bell, or coupler coil being energised, correct? Not sure yet on what voltage the relay coil should be. And I don't have a PW Lionel with a complete functional horn to see just how they wired it and test for voltage.

 

Is it that simple, or am I missing something?

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Yes, it will work. You don't need a relay. You need a diode in series with the coupler coil, biased ("aimed") so that it conducts in the opposite direction from the horn circuit.  However, you can do this for only one coupler at a time, or else all the couplers so equipped will operate. In other words, if you wire up one loco this way, fine, but don't do it for all the locos that are on the track at the same time.

 

A more expensive way but totally selective, is to use a small radio control transmitter and receiver in every piece of rolling stock on which you wish to have this feature.   Try this:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/fixed-...;hash=item3a822a49d6

 

I have a small 4' x 8' layout, with 2 loops, so I would only have two trains running at the same time, and the loops although connected are electrically insulated from each other.  And I mostly just let the trains run. Only 3 sidings so not a lot of switching opportunities.

 

That rc module is interesting though. I'm not really knowledgeable about electronics, especially what's out there. But that has a number of possibilities. Thanks for that link.

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