Hello,
I am interested in getting into standard gauge. Currently have post war AF. What transformer should I use for standard gauge Lionel or AF and how do you wire to the track?
Thanks for any information.
DCE
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Let me preface this response by saying this is how I have my little setup done. It works very well for me however, it is not the end all, be all way of doing things. I operate both original and modern standard gauge trains with no issues.
I am using a MTH Z-4000 for power. I, like things to be as simple as possible. Cannot get much more simple than 2 handles. Push buttons for direction, bell and whistle make me very happy.
As for track, I used USA Track. In my opinion, it is the best out there and Kirk is one of the best people to do business with. I used 16 gauge, stranded copper wire soldered to the bottom of the rail. This way, there are no unsightly wire connections to be seen on the table top. Those feeds are placed every 4’ throughout the layout. With the tight fitting track from USA, I probably did not need to put that many drops in however, my layout is portable so I did this due to the moving and vibration of transporting.
Looking forward to hear from others as to how and what they do.
Wiring, power, and overload protection are the same as O gauge. I have a mixture of prewar, modern conventional, and modern digital control standard gauge; I use modern power supplies with fast breakers and TVS diodes (search the forum for threads on these topics). I'll only use a postwar transformer on a loop on which ONLY prewar trains are being run.
I use the Flyer postwar 18B transformers to run my prewar Flyer O and Standard Gauge trains. Works fine.
I use a postwar Lionel LW. Plenty of power, internal circuit breaker, and it has the cool internal lighting on the throttle.
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. It sounds like I will be fine using my AF 30B.
Thanks Again
DCE
