Skip to main content

I have many postwar locomotives and tenders and some of them cause the locomotives to go into neutral when blowing the whistle from the KW transformer.

Could it be the whistle causing this or the transformer?  Any fixes?

I replaced the whistle rectifier in the transformer with a diode as described online a couple years ago.  The only noticeable event when this happens is quite a bit of sparks at the pickup of the tender on the track rail.

Thanks

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Most likely its the transformer and not any of your tenders.  The tenders simply put a draw on the track power.  The track power would need to dip below 6 volts for the eunit to cycle into neutral.  If the tender was causing a direct short, that could cause the eunit to cycle but the odds of having several tenders shorting out is not likely.  When you use the whistle control on the kw, its running the power through the diode to cause the dc offset to trigger the whistle.  If the contacts in the transformer are not properly aligned, it actual breaks the power to the track until it makes the new connection to the diode to trigger the dc offset.  I bet if you move your whistle lever slowly to engage the whistle, I bet you will see the power cut off on the track before it engages the whistle.  If you move it fast, the power cut off would be so quick, the eunit will stay engaged.  Should be a simple adjustment to the contacts in the transformer.  Or the contacts may need to be cleaned, if they are dirty.

Add Reply

Post
This forum is sponsored by Lionel, LLC
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×