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I was gabbing about trains and electronics with some acquaintances and discussion meandered about to the Lionel 0150 rectifier that I have. Immediately I was cautioned that these selenium type rectifiers can release toxic fumes and are a serious health risk.

Wondering if this was a "Throw out all your Lionel Trains - they have Lead paint" type warning or something to be taken seriously, I googled around.

It seems to me that the rectifier will only off-gas when in service and failing. Yes, the fumes are toxic and reportedly is a rotten egg smell one never forgets, but incidental exposure risks seem negligible.

As such, I don't need to quarantine or exile my Lionel 0150, and can even opt to use it as is.

A natural followup question: Should I choose to use the Lionel 0150 and choose or need to replace the selenium rectifier, how do I determine what modern solid state rectifier would be a drop in replacement (or as close as possible to drop in)?

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I don't think you have much to worry about. I have never heard about anyone getting sick because of a bad rectifier disc. Maybe in high voltage industrial applications, but not in our O and HO gauge trains. I haven't seen the insides of a 0150, does it use a standard rectifier disc, or more likely a rectifier assembly used in HO packs in the day?

Rectifier disks are copper/copper oxide.

That leaves Lionel's HO transformers.
The 0100 uses a rectifier stack that looks very similar to what the 0150 uses.
The other HO Transformers seem to each have their own solution.

The Lionel HO service manual states that the 0150 uses a selenium rectifier.
I did not see where it specified for other HO power supplies.

I did notice that the section on the 0100 stated that there was no circuit breaker on the DC side of the 0100. It said that the rectifier would stop conducting if it overheated due to excessive load.
I don't know whether that would be considered an issue today.
I wouldn't use it with out an external breaker on the DC side.
The AC side does have a breaker.

C W Burfle posted:

Rectifier disks are copper/copper oxide.

That leaves Lionel's HO transformers.
The 0100 uses a rectifier stack that looks very similar to what the 0150 uses.
The other HO Transformers seem to each have their own solution.

The Lionel HO service manual states that the 0150 uses a selenium rectifier.
I did not see where it specified for other HO power supplies.

I did notice that the section on the 0100 stated that there was no circuit breaker on the DC side of the 0100. It said that the rectifier would stop conducting if it overheated due to excessive load.
I don't know whether that would be considered an issue today.
I wouldn't use it with out an external breaker on the DC side.
The AC side does have a breaker.

Please note that there is a large segment of the hobby known as Vintage HO.  All of the transformers from the 50's and probably the 60's (e.g. Scintilla, Marnold, MRC) used selenium rectifiers.  Some of the O scale transformers from that era have massive rectifiers.  These "vintage" folks do run their equipment as it was done in the past, no DCC, older style coupers, etc.

I suspect if there was an issue with selenium rectifiers we would know about it by now.  I have four Marnold transformers with the 160 degree lever throttle that are not headed for the trash.

Lou N

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