Power to On30 Christmas streetcar

[justbydiane]

My On30 Christmas Streetcar only works intermittently.  When it isn't working, there is no power coming from the plug-in adapter.  I have checked this with a multimeter.  The current adapter is has a 7.5 volt output, but I haven't been able to find one on your website.   Where can I get a replacement to plug in to the station house?  Hoping our Christmas village trolly will be moving soon.  Thanks.

[NarrowMinded]

Is it the power supply that came with the set?
Did you buy this used?

Nm-jeff

[justbydiane]

It is the original power supply that came with the Christmas Street Car set.  I purchased it new almost 10 years ago.

[NarrowMinded]

I may be reading something into this, but your power supply works, then it shuts off then after a few minutes or so it works again?

It sounds like it is the internal overload protection that is tripping, it could be a intermittent short in the track or something wrong with your trolley that is causing a short or overload.

Does your trolley work / run the same speed as it did before?

Check the amp draw with your multimeter then compare against the amp rating on the power pack.

Be sure the track.is clean and your trolley has not picked up any carpet or snow fibers and gotten them wrapped around the axles causing binding.

NM-Jeff

[JerryB]

Along the same line: The low end power supplies included in sets usually employ a very simple thermal overload contact. Once that overload is tripped, it will usually trip at a lower current the next time, and an even lower current on each subsequent trip. The bimetal strips just get weaker and weaker. This is irrespective of the time between trips.

Once that begins to happen, the only real solution is to replace the power supply. More expensive power supplies employ a much more robust overload protection, and are mostly immune from these types of nuisance trips.

Happy RRing,

Jerry