I started running a Lionel 736 / 2-8-4 locomotive with a Lionel lines 2046w whistle tender. Powered with a Lionel KW transformer. When blowing whistle it slows speed to almost a crawl and what few accessories I have the lights dim. As if the whistle is drawing current from anywhere it can to operate. Not sure how to correct this. Any advice or help is appreciated.
Thank you
rbrtmark@aol. com
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Not sure if this helps and also not sure if I am totally correct. I have run old (1960's) locomotives with just the horn and new (1990's) ones with railsounds, horn and bell on a portable layout powered by a ?1950's? KW.
The older stuff works but the engine does slow down when the horn is used. The newer engine runs with the railsounds but neither the horn or bell works.
I think it is just the way it is with KW's though I may be wrong - in my case the KW may be malfunctioning.
Joe
The slowdown is normal behavior due to the load of the whistle motor.
Most Lionel 'W' series transformers include a step-up winding that should boost the power to the track when sounding the whistle. A good test would be to take the whistle off the track and activate the whistle control. Without a tender on the track to load it down you should see the track power surge a bit when blowing the whistle.
If that checks out then the problem may be the whistle motor may be drawing to much power and need a cleaning. Another possible problem is the rectifier disk inside the KW may be worn out and is shorting out when you blow the whistle. In any case I recommend rebuilding the transformer with a stud rectifier as shown here, http://ontracktrestle.com/diode-sell.html
Thank you very much for your reply and advice.
Thank you for replying.
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