Williams F3 & Traimaster

[Oilcan Harry]

I have a real beginner's question. As a long time operator of American Flyer, I have no experience with Williams trains. I do however have older Williams  F3 s and a Trainmaster that were purchased as shelf display models. I am rebuilding my layout and finally adding some 3 rail to it. What transformer would I need to run these? AC? DC? If I need to add DC, could I wire a switch so I could switch between either the AC or DC transformer as needed? Thanks for any information.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Harry,
An AC transformer will be fine.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[phillyreading]

An American Flyer transformer should work with all Williams engines, but if you have sound units that might be a differant story. The sound units with Williams, made before Bachmann, take a few seconds of having the button pressed to activate. If you have a True Blast 2 horn unit, you will need to have a modern transformer with horn & whistle buttons to activate the sound unit.

Lee F.

[DominicMazoch]

Lione does have a "sound activation button" for transformers without sound buttons.  Should work with AF transformers.  watch how you wire.  Depending on how the black and red wires aare connected to the transformer, you will get horn or bell, but not both!

[phillyreading]

Lione does have a "sound activation button" for transformers without sound buttons.  Should work with AF transformers.  watch how you wire.  Depending on how the black and red wires aare connected to the transformer, you will get horn or bell, but not both!

You can get both horn & bell but you need two sound activation buttons, one wired the correct way for the horn and the second wired in reverse for the bell. One note about Williams sound units, you can get one sound at a time, not both horn(whistle) & bell at the same time.

Lee F.