accessories

[Cody J]

I am in the planning stage of a new BNSF 9X5 layout with alot of switching opportunites with of course leads to switches! My layout is DC powered and I will have one train on the outside oval and one doing the switching. For accessories I will use Bachmann electronic switches and some floodlights for the yard and so on and I will most likely see the need for more accessories in the future. Is there any sort of accessory power boost or something along that line for my layout?

thanks,
cody

[simkon]

Yes there is, another power pack/transformer will do the trick, you may even want to get 2 more.

[Cody J]

but i will only have two engines so I will have a power pack for both. So the extra packs will be plugged into the wall but not to the track?

cody

[Tylerf]

Yes, that's right. However unless you can find a used bin of some sort at a LHS with a powerpack with acsessory hookups you may want to go with a cheaper alternative. You can simply get a wall transformer that is rated for whatever the acessories are rated at which for most acessories is around 12v AC. They can be bought new or probably found lying around somewere from an old appliance or toy of that nature. I would say though that if you have access to a cheap train transformer I would still go with that seeing as it is most likely somewhat regulated so to reduce the risk of blowing the bulbs.

[Cody J]

thanks for all of the responses but I have one more question:
Is it possible to connect multiple lights to one power pack? I know they will all be the same brightness.
For example:
3 of these: http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/bra/bra5583.htm
9 of these: http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/bra/bra5582.htm

I will have two power packs that are connected to the track with switches connected to both of them due to the amount of switches required. And I am thinking about either 1 or two power packs that aren't connected to the track for the lights. I am leaning towards the two power packs with the lights for the industries on that and the lights for the yards and Freemont (the town) and the logging operation on the other one.

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/?action=view&current=BNSFMapNewer.jpg     

I hope this link works. This is a horrible hand-drawn not to scale map of the BNSF Freemont Sub.

thanks,
cody

[simkon]

Actually the brightness will vary depending on how your lights are wired. It makes a difference if they are wired in a series as opposed to wired in parallel

[Jim Banner]

Wire all 36 bulbs in series and you will be lucky if you can detect a dim glow, even at midnight in a coal cellar.  Parallel is the only practical way to go.

Unfortunately, Brawa has provided nice photographs but little information to back them up.  If we assume the bulbs in these lights are rated for 12 volts, then a 16 volt power pack will reduce their life by a factor of about 42.  That means that if they would normally last 400 hours at 12 volts, they will burn out in about 10 hours at 16 volts.  Oops.  On the other hand, if they are rated at 16 volts and you run them at 12 volts, they will last longer but their light output will be cut down by a factor of 13.  This is not so bad, as out eyes compensate for changes in light by opening and closing the iris.  So a light reduction of 13 times appears to our eyes as only reducing the light to about 1/2 as bright.  Bottom line, if Brawa isn't going to tell you the lamp voltage rating, you would be better off using a 12 volt wall power supply.

The next question is how much current these bulbs take.  Again Brawa stands mute.  So lets make an educated guess and say it is about .1 amps each.  thirty six bulbs at point one amp each would be 3.6 amps.  That would smoke your average power pack real quick.  In fact, you would have trouble finding a wall wart power supply with that high a rating.  Most of them do not exceed 20 watts but you are looking at  43 watts (12 volts time 3.5 amps.)  And Brawa has given us no reason to suspect that the current is not even higher.

My advice - buy at least one of the lights and measure how much current it draws.  You will need to borrow or buy a meter for that.  Then you can figure out how much each bulb draws.  And finally you can figure out how many power packs you need for all these lights.  I suspect a transformer like the ones they use for low voltage garden lights might be you best best.

Jim

p.s.  Anybody want to guess how much it would cut the light down if you wired them all in series?  It would reduce it to about 1/21,000,000,000,000,000 of its normal output.   That is less than one twentieth of one quadrillionth.  Sort of like somebody waving a match at you from the dwarf planet Pluto.

[jonathan]

'Oy! Electrical math again...'Oy!

BTW Jim, what would happen if you connected those lights to the DC side of a power pack and used the controller like a reostat?  Is that a simple (albeit expensive) resistor solution?  Or that could be inexpensive if you grab an old one from a junk box at a trains show... hmmm.  I'm thinking too much again.  Sorry...

Regards,

Jonathan

[Jim Banner]

Jonathan,
Old power packs with working rheostats are a good way to go.  Just make sure you don't exceed the current rating.  And if you hide them away under the train table, don't stack them up but do make sure they have lots of ventilation.  When you use them to dim the lights, the extra power is burned off as heat.  Burned out power packs?  Oy vey.

Jim

[pdlethbridge]

headache coming!

[Jim Banner]

How about we all take up a collection and send PD a gallon size bottle of Asprin for Christmas??

Hang in there buddy.

Jim

[pdlethbridge]

throb, throb, throb!