Using a 220 Volt Power Pack on 110 Volts

[alhoop]

Other companies also made center-off-knob throttles.


I agree that the center-off speed control is easy to use.

Even Lionel.
Al

[brill27mcb]

If the center off position does not have a detent, I find them difficult to use because it's easy to go past center and end up reversing the train instead of stopping it. I always thought of center-off designs as inferior, lower-price offerings, like they are in the Tomix controller line-up, and of course the basic black Bachmann ones you see at every model train swap show.

Rich K.

[Doug G.]

From an operational standpoint, though, they are superior to me because if you are making many moves and having to reverse directions many times, as in switching, it becomes a real drag to have to move, turn the throttle down, use the reverse switch, and turn the throttle back up, over and over again.

Center off throttles may seem a little weird to those who have grown up with the conventional one-way throttle with reversing switch because you keep wanting to turn the knob to the right every time but, after you get used to them, they are more convenient.

That Piko unit does look very well designed/built, especially using a variable transformer instead of a rheostat. I recall many in the field, especially Linn Westcott, in the nineteen sixties, extolling the superiority of that method.

Doug

[Point353]

Then there's this one, made for Arnold by Siemens:

[peteski]

Then there's this one, made for Arnold by Siemens:

Arnold a$$?  Ummmmm . . . .    Obviously in German that letter combination doesn't mean the same thing as in English, but to us it is funny.

EDIT: LOL!  Even TRW censor filter changed the A,S,S (I originally posted) to a$$. 

[nkalanaga]

I also have a Lionel HO pack, with the center off, but not quite the same case.  I use the AC to power my "modern" walk-around MRC, and the DC, with two copper computer cable wires, for testing and wheel cleaning.

As for Lone Star, I have no idea what pack it had, but my set, Christmas of 1967, from Wards, had a 110V power pack.  I'm pretty sure it didn't look like the English pack pictured earlier.

[Steveruger45]

Actually, I guess I knew brown and blue are current UK colors so I figured there was a change along there, at some time. 1963 is probably long enough before March of 2004 to have had red and black.

Anyway, the pack works and the output is between 6 and 7 volts DC as expected. The half voltage is actually pretty good for max. speed but the current capacity is only 380 mA so definitely for only one loco at a time.

It is now snug in its box and the MRC Tech III 9500 is back in place for the layout. I have had up to 10 Treble-O-Lectric locos running at once with that and it doesn't even blink.

Doug



Doiug.

Doug

Hi Doug, I’m a little late in this thread but I am originally from England.   And yes way back before the The UK got into Europe Union the electrical color code was indeed green for earth (ground) red for phase or live (hot) and black for neutral (neutral).
Just wondering if they will change back again what with Brexit 😁

I started out in The 1960’s back in England with one of these controllers by Tri-ang which later became Hornby.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tri-ang-RP-14-The-Barclay-Power-Controller-Model-Railway-/113140767189
Sold it decades ago before moving to USA.

[Doug G.]

I also have a Lionel HO pack, with the center off, but not quite the same case.  I use the AC to power my "modern" walk-around MRC, and the DC, with two copper computer cable wires, for testing and wheel cleaning.

As for Lone Star, I have no idea what pack it had, but my set, Christmas of 1967, from Wards, had a 110V power pack.  I'm pretty sure it didn't look like the English pack pictured earlier.

Wards had regular HO packs they sold for using with Treble-O-Lectric. My parents...er, I mean Santa... bought the little KF UL25 pack which just had DC output for the trains. They also had a pack which may have been in the same case (I have never knowingly seen one) and did have AC terminals for accessories in addition to DC terminals.

Yours was probably one of them. Here's what the KF UL25 looks like:



Doug

[Doug G.]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the color verification. Red and black seem so much more natural for hot and neutral than do brown and blue.

Were devices over in England often supplied with just stripped wires for the power cord? This Lone Star controller is that way and it doesn't look like it was ever changed from original.

Over my long history with Treble-O-Lectric, I got to know some of the guys over there also involved with it. I became friends with Geoffrey Ambridge, son of one of the co-founders, Sydney Ambridge, of Die Casting Machine Tools Ltd., makers of Lone Star trains, and I helped him with his website and touched up some of his photos for a better appearance. Sadly, Geoff passed away in May of 2015.

Doug

[mmagliaro]

Actually, by powering it from 110v and only getting about 6v out, you improved it! Assuming full throttle was always way too fast, you now have doubled the usable arc range on the rheostat. So you have better, more gradual control as you turn up the speed knob.

[Doug G.]

Actually, by powering it from 110v and only getting about 6v out, you improved it! Assuming full throttle was always way too fast, you now have doubled the usable arc range on the rheostat. So you have better, more gradual control as you turn up the speed knob.

Yup, that's what I discovered and, actually, expected..

Doug

[DKS]

Wards had regular HO packs they sold for using with Treble-O-Lectric. My parents...er, I mean Santa... bought the little KF UL25 pack which just had DC output for the trains. They also had a pack which may have been in the same case (I have never knowingly seen one) and did have AC terminals for accessories in addition to DC terminals.

Yours was probably one of them. Here's what the KF UL25 looks like:



Doug

K-F Industries in Philadelphia made packs for scores of train sets sold in the US, including Arnold, Aurora, Atlas, and others.

http://davidksmith.com/postage-stamp-trains/power_pack.htm

 

[Doug G.]

Bah! I meant to mention I saw, on your site, the Aurora packs were the same thing as the ones sold directly as "KF" but my once brilliant mind forgets things like that, these days.



Doug

[nkalanaga]

Doug:  If that's what Wards sold, then that's what I probably had.  I don't remember.

I've never been to England, but remember, years ago, reading that they didn't have a standard electric socket, as the US does.  Different regions used different sockets, and plugs, although they were all the same voltage.  So, many of the cords did have just the wires, and the user supplied a plug to fit the local sockets.  I don't know how true that is, but it is plausible.

[Doug G.]

Doug:  If that's what Wards sold, then that's what I probably had.  I don't remember.

I've never been to England, but remember, years ago, reading that they didn't have a standard electric socket, as the US does.  Different regions used different sockets, and plugs, although they were all the same voltage.  So, many of the cords did have just the wires, and the user supplied a plug to fit the local sockets.  I don't know how true that is, but it is plausible.

I think it's very plausible and it seems, in the cobwebs of my mind, I have read that sometime in the long past.

Doug