Power Packs

[Artillery198]

My son and I are constructing our first train layout and have bought some buildings and accessories, one of which is the Bachman Storage Building with Steam Whistle Sound.  The directions state that a 'power pack' is needed to hook up the leads from the building.  I have no idea what that is or where to get one.  We also have a water tower and searchlight to hook up as well.

And help from the forum members would be greatly appreciated.

I'm new at this, so please excuse my general railroad ignorance.

Sincerely,
A

[Flare]

The power pack is typically the speed controller for the trains;  Accessories connect to the AC terminals and the track connects to the DC terminals.

If you're using DCC instead of analog operation it gets more complicated, but a 16v AC "wall-wart" power supply should work for your AC accessories if you go that route.

[jbrock27]

You can find tons of power packs on Ebay for cheap.  For what you are looking for, train set ones by Bachmann, AHM, Tyco, Model Power and Like Like for example will be fine.  If you want to go top draw, get one made by MRC.

Do the directions specify AC or DC?  This is important. 

Regardless, the above mentioned power packs have terminals for both.  My suggestion is find one inexpensively in decent shape from Ebay.  Also, buy yourself a couple of "barrier strips", this way you don't have to connect every wire for every accessory to the pack; instead you can wire up a barrier strip from the pack and then have your leads from your accessories wired to the barrier strip.  The strip allows you to get power to multiple items.   

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Do be sure you look closely at the power pack/speed controller before buying. Some of the early versions of Bachmann's square type with with the big knob and reversing switch don't have accessory terminals

[James in FL]

Hi Artillery198,

I'm new at this, so please excuse my general railroad ignorance.

No worries we were all newbies once.

You state:

We also have a water tower and searchlight to hook up as well.

While technically you could power those accessories off the DC side of your "power pack", if you do you will notice a very severe slowdown in the speed of your lokie when these accessories are activated, or functioning.
Therefore, the better option is to power them off the fixed AC side, 16vAC rated output should be more than enough for all three.
If your power supply does not have AC terminals then you will need another that does, and use that exclusively for your accessories, and run your track off the variable DC side.

Not sure of you knowledge of electricity.

DCC is a whole other animal, and I believe these accessories were developed and manufactured long before DCC was born.
Can these be incorporated into a DCC layout?
Common logic says yes, they could, but that's another thread.

You might want to regulate your basic beginner power pack to accessories only, if possible (if it has AC output) use only, and invest in more a robust power supply as @jbrock27 suggests.
Barrier strips are also a plus as suggested.
Again, you will need to give some thought on what you want to exactly accomplish, how many lokies running at one time, how much current draw for accessories, DC or DCC, structure lighting, lighted passenger cars, signals, etc.
This will determine the VA rating your power supply(s) needs to have.

Sorry, did not intend information overload.

Do your homework before laying out the cash.
Consider expansion of the pike and reserve power.

Good luck

[jbrock27]

Some of the early versions of Bachmann's square type with with the big knob and reversing switch don't have accessory terminals

These types are their newer versions.

For the sake of additional information, the ones I speak of are usually a color.  For example, brown, black, blue, yellow....Not very hard to spot the ones that have both DC and AC terminals, which if one did not know, are screws.  I hope this helps further.

[jbrock27]

Let me ask you Arty, what power pack do you currently have?  (assuming you have at least one)

[Len]

I believe what jbrock is talking about are these 'flip handle' bricks:



They came in a variety of colors and came under a bunch of manufacturers names, Bachmann, AHM, Model Power, etc., and for both HO and N. The speed control pretty much had 5 positions, Warp 4.5 and 9 'Forward', Off, and Warp 4.5 and 9 Reverse.

These days the AC outputs are most often used to power switches, and the DC for variable brightness control of lights. Something with a bit wider speed range should be used for running trains.

Len

[jbrock27]

Correctamundo

[Artillery198]

Thanks to everyone who replied it was very helpful and it now works perfectly.