Has anyone added an extension cable to their lionel 74 wall wart.
I really want all my plug ins in a confined area and I need several power cable 6-10' for my lionel wall warts. I can't figure out if there is one that will plug into the lionel version and still handle the load.
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Would there be a safe way to run a suitable extension cord or fuse-protected power strip closer to where the wall wart needs to be?
Long wiring runs incur resistance loss which causes both voltage drop and heat under load. (Unless you re-wire the whole run with thicker conductors.) The wall wart itself doesn't pull much from the house current though -- so it's a bit safer/more efficient to bring the house current closer to the wall wart than the other way 'round.
Put this in your search program and it should return multiple solutions of variable lengths. The barrel plug size is the most important part. Lionel uses the larger plug size.
5.5mm x 2.5mm barrel plug extension cord
You can just buy the connectors and make an extension. The current from that supply is only a max of maybe 4 amps, so pretty much anything larger than #22 wire will do fine for the extension. Ted is correct, the 5.5/2.5mm barrel connector is what Lionel uses on most of those types of connections. Same connector as is used on all the command bases.
As GRJ says, be sure the cable can handle the load. For example, these attractively priced 2-meter cables from Amazon (4 for $9) use only #22... let's skip the AC vs. DC techno-babble for now... just broad strokes here!
If willing to do some DIY assembly there are no-solder screw-terminal adapters such as these from eBay albeit coming from Asia...$3 for a male female pair.
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