Modifying a Williams FA A-B-A Diesel Combination

Oh no!  Somethbing is going to happen!  I read the word "Lash-up"!

Definitely, NO GOOD can come of this.

Rick

LASH-UP

This has worked for me.  The only glitch might be the reverse units getting out of sync.  Powering off for a few seconds and then powering on will restart both engines. One way to reduce this happening is to run a wire (tether) between the center pickups on all two/three units which will drastically reduce the occurrence.

To be certain all units for the A-B-A hookup are in sync at all times both engines can be wired to a single E unit which is installed in the B unit. A motor control cable would need to be added between each of the A units and the E-unit in the B unit. The sound modules and speakers can remain in each A unit. Each A unit will also have directional LED lighting. Separate LEDs will be provided for each of "marker" lights.

Note: To operate both A units from a single E-unit the outputs from the single E-unit need to be wired from the B unit back to each A unit with a pair of wires connecting each unit. 

Another approach is to use a diode bridge (rectifier) in each A unit and wire the units so that they always run in the "same" direction as a pair with no neutral or reverse condition.

Please explain how to wire a single Williams electronic E unit to control 2 engines. Thanks

Bob Wheeler

WILLIAMS FA1 modification made

1 Added power trucks and control board to the B Unit

2. Wired all motors in series

3 Added Ott sound system to dummy A-unit

4. Add radio antenna to Both A units

And will this work with other brands, like MTH's PS1 locomotives?

You need to have a two wire cable that goes from the first powered A unit to the second powered A unit and run all four motors off of one circuit board.

I have used 1/32 scale remote control car wiring harness for use with my Williams SD-45's that I added a unpowered unit having the True Blast 2 horn inside the unpowered unit. This way the units can uncouple when you want to take an engine off as it has little plug-ins on the wiring cables. Used red wire for power and black for the common rail and wired it inside each SD-45. I did four engines that way, running small wire harness's with them. Increased the electrical performance too, as some of my Williams SD-45's were losing power because they have both tire drive and plastic center wheels.

Lee Fritz

Another option that I have done on two of my Williams F-7's was to gut the circuit boards and replace them with a bridge rectifier. It increases power a little as you don't have the circuit board drawing current. The Williams that I have are all D.C. can motors. I have the older Crown Edition F-7's and needed some extra pulling power for the set six(6) of "El Capitan" Santa Fe passenger cars that I have.

Before I added the second set of motors to the unpowered A unit the F-7 would barely pull the passenger cars I have, and that is with a post war ZW with only the F-7 getting any power.

You can do what you want with your Williams engines, but I can not see any reason to wire a set of motors in series. If I wired my Williams in series a snail would go speeding past them.

It's not that I can't wire the motors in series, that would be easy for me. But why lower the power, when I really need more power.

Lee Fritz

PennsyK4

Where can I purchase the Pennsy radio antenna castings used on your models.  I have Pennsy F3 and F7 engine sets that need these antenna systems.

Pro Hobby 

Those were scratch made from brass and piano wire.

But have used kits from Bowser/Cal Scale

Problem was, they were always out of stock.

I would purchase a large quantity of O scale brass antenna castings if I could find them.

That is exactly what I did to a Williams E7 A & powered B set. It proved to be easy and very reliable

I later converted them to TMCC with a single board and a tether.

I am not sure a Williams E unit will handle the current of more than two motors

Another solution is to add two new relays having at least a 5 amp current rating to each engine. The E-unit needs to only supply enough current to energize the coil for the added relays.