Track power question

Are you referring to two rail track?  Not sure what you mean, since all track is non-powered until you hook it up to a transformer.

Sorry let me clarify lol...I am hooking my transformer to 3 rail gargraves straight track that is 5 ft long holding a few passenger cars and engine/tender. It's a display piece in which I want the passenger cars to light up, but don't want the engine to take off running. I've posted about this before but haven't figured out the best way to go about. 

theres a million ways to do that. 2 pieces and connect with plastic pins, cut through the center rail with a dremel, use 2 rail track and just put some contacts under the passenger car rollers.... And so on.

Isn't all gargraves track non-powered?!?  As previously stated, isolate the center rail from the two sections by cutting it through and only add power to the desired section.

Thanks! Will do. I guess what I meant was a 3 rail gargraves track that would remain non-powered even when the transformer was hooked up. 

mwax516 posted:

Thanks! Will do. I guess what I meant was a 3 rail gargraves track that would remain non-powered even when the transformer was hooked up. 

You would not be able to light the passenger cars and not the engine if they are on the same continuous segment of track.  That is why the recommendations are to create a break in the center rail between the engine and the cars.  You would then power the section of track with the cars on it.  The cars are using track power the same as the engine.  

Some cars support battery power as an alternative.  Then, you wouldn't need any power to the track.

How long do you plan to have the cars lighted in this display?  Does the engine have any lights or sound that you also what for the display?  I setup a shelf display once where I put the engine in neutral.  The cars lighted and so did the engine headlight.  I could even use the engine sounds.  But, I did not leave this on all of the time. 

George

Thanks for the reply George - I had considered the idea of putting the engine in neutral to make use of the lights and sounds, however, I had also read you can drain out the battery or worse if this was done too long. So to be on the safer side I planned to just go about lighting the passenger cars. This display will be permanent for a while as I don't have room for a layout at the moment..

MWAX516,

First off, I would not power the cars and/or engine all the time do to the possibility of burning out the bulbs.  I would only do it to show it off to guests.  If you run low voltage (+/-10 VAC) to the track the bulbs should last a long time.  Not sure how you would drain the battery in the engine if it is powered by the track.

It would help the experts here if they knew a little more about what you are trying to show off.  What brand/type of cars are they, do they have incandescent 14 volt bulbs, or later cars with bulbs that handle a constant 18 volts?  LEDS?

What brand of engine is it.  Conventional, DCS, TMCC/Legacy?  The model number can help.  Then maybe someone can tell you the pros/cons of powering the engine.

mwax516 posted:

Thanks for the reply George - I had considered the idea of putting the engine in neutral to make use of the lights and sounds, however, I had also read you can drain out the battery or worse if this was done too long.

What battery? Are you talking about a Lionel product, or an MTH product, or a Williams product?

So to be on the safer side I planned to just go about lighting the passenger cars. This display will be permanent for a while as I don't have room for a layout at the moment..

If you're lighting the passenger cars, it would seem to make sense that you'd at least want the locomotive lights to be on, right?

Thank you guys for the responses. This is my first time setting up a display shelf and I've heard stories of things going wrong and engines flying off so trying to be as thorough as possible. Attached a picture (excuse the foam boards, it is also a recording studio lol). however there will be more trains and shelves to come. Right now it is all Lionel/tmcc engines Except for one MTH engine. Engines are Lionel Empire State express, Lionel 773 Hudson, blue CV, red CV, gold 700e 100th anniversary, Pennsy S-1. The cars are k-line Empire State aluminum, Lionel superliners, blue comet, Lionel aluminum Empire State, and several more not displayed yet. 

I understand for many of you this is a very easy thing to do so thanks for your help!! 

No worries.  Hopefully, you get a great answer for your display.  The trains look great!

If you just want to light the passenger cars, I think the easiest thing to do is to create a separate power block by creating an insulated break in the center rail  between the engine and the passenger cars.

The engines should all come up in neutral though, so it may not be necessary.  I have never heard that you would ruin an engine battery by letting the engine sit in neutral on a powered track. For safety, it might be good to lock the engines in neutral.  I am not positive on how to do that on these.  Maybe others can advise.

You could also slit a plastic drinking straw and place that over the center rail to prevent electrical contact with the loco center rail pickups. No extra rail gaps required.

I think ACE has the best and simplest solution.  Keep It Simple Stupid.  Not you of course.  

Ace posted:

You could also slit a plastic drinking straw and place that over the center rail to prevent electrical contact with the loco center rail pickups. No extra rail gaps required.

Ace posted:

You could also slit a plastic drinking straw and place that over the center rail to prevent electrical contact with the loco center rail pickups. No extra rail gaps required.

Wow - so simple, easy, not and permanent! What a fantastic idea! I would just make sure the strawed area is more than adequate in coverage in case the train is inadvertently nudged.

Getting Back to MWAX, If the passenger cars use incandescents, they could tend to get warm and don't necessarily have the lifetime to last when on 24x7. You will want a compatible Warm White LED from a place like this that is a drop screw in replacement: http://stores.towncountryhobbies.com/leds/

ACE - Thanks! I think I might try that first before making a permanent break in the center rail. I guess the main risk is if the plastic straw came loose somehow and the engine went zoom zoom....which is why as George above and others stated I should also put the engine in neutral. There was a guy working at a train shop who told me that leaving the engines powered in neutral for too long could cause the battery to leak?...not sure if that was an exaggeration or even possible, but that was the reasoning for my initial hesitation to that idea. 

For what it's worth, on engines that use Nicd or NiMH batteries ( white or green MTH types, for example)  these batteries will be damaged by constant charging.  I'm unaware of Lionel using batteries in modern locomotives but I am not familiar with every product.  I'm also unsure of what the charging circuit looks like in PS2 and PS3 MTH engines, but to date in other conversations no one has suggested that they incorporate "smart chargers" .  To the best of my knowledge all MTH engines, then, simply apply a low current charge to the battery whenever there is power on the track.  Because of this, leaving them on powered track for long periods of time without letting the battery drain at all will eventually damage the battery.  For the same reason you should not leave rechargeable batteries in the charger longer than the 12-14 hours they need to charge unless you have a smart charger that stops charging once the battery is full.  

I think the 'simple' solution is not to power the locomotives, though there are folks with various methods to power them safely.  

On the issue of bulb life and such, an option might be to use a motion sensor to power your transformer.  This would allow the lights to turn off after, say, 10 minutes with no one in the room, then turn on again when someone enters.  

JGL

Ace posted:

You could also slit a plastic drinking straw and place that over the center rail to prevent electrical contact with the loco center rail pickups. No extra rail gaps required.

Great idea!  I bet you can even find them in black at a party store.  You could also use electrical tape.  That will leave a glue residue, but would not move.  A single piece of tape could also be used to secure the straw for extra protection, by wrapping the straw and rail in the middle, between the ties.

I'm New at this, but here is a question. Why not just take the pick up rollers off the engine?

The "simple" solution to a battery degradation issue in the MTH locomotives is the BCR, no more battery issues.

Lionel engines us non-rechargable batteries to maintain the RailSounds during brief power interruptions or to provide the shutdown sequence when track power is removed.