Lionel 3459/3469 Coal Dump Car Questions

[BobbyDing]

I've learned so much from you folks recently. You guys have been a great help with every question I've tossed out here. So, not wanting to break tradition. Here are some more.

I have a 3469 that I'll putting back together (poor ol humpty dumpty took a fall). I don't have the original tracks that triggered it, but rather some new Atlas track that has not yet had the shoe triggering rails installed yet (sorry if I'm using the wrong terminology).

While it was apart I noticed that each lead from the solenoid goes to a seperate shoe at each truck. I had always assumed that the shoes where tied together and picked up the trigger voltage and that the car used the track common as the return. Which I guess is wrong (?). So, my question is:

What type of voltage is used to trigger the solenoid on a 3469? AC? DC? Track Voltage? Accessory voltage? And what level should it be for optimum functionality?

Thanks,

Bobby

[phillyreading]

Bobby,
I would use AC voltage but you will need the special track that came with this car. If this car is like the operating horse unloader for 027 it needs to have that special track because of the way that Lionel had wired it from the factory, in plain terms it gets all power from the uncoupler/unloading track to function. Do your couplers have a small solenoid built in for uncoupling?
Lee Fritz

[Anonymous]

Just get a UCS/RCS track section and you're good to go. Most of the major track manufactrers offer something that will work. Even Fastrack. I just run mine on track power. It's got a lotta "pop" at 14-16 volts AC, which is where I run my TMCC engines. Don't think it needs quite that much.

I think the 3459 has coil couplers, the 3469 has magnetic couplers. Both are works of the toy train maker's art!

[fwright]

Most operating cars with the shoes for the operating rails are wired the same way as the 3459/3469 - one shoe for hot, the other for "ground". You can use any set of operating rails - Atlas, UCS, etc. The Lionel operating tracks had each diagonal set of rails matched - one as hot and one as ground - in the "unload" position. In the "uncouple" position, all operating rails are hot to actuate the coil couplers.

A few longer operating cars - the double bin coal and the barrel car are the 2 examples I know of - did have the solenoids wiried with one wire to both shoes and the other wire grounded through the outside rail. This is because these cars were too long to fit both shoes simultaneously on an O27 operating track. These cars were generally supplied with OTC lock-ons to provide power to the shoes, but will operate fine with just one shoe on any hot operating rail.

I like to use 11 volts for my operating cars, but some may require more or operate just fine on less. The UCS/RCS and OTC are easily wired to a constant voltage connection. The O27 operating track requires cutting the control cable, and a little more effort, but can be made to work off constant voltage instead of track voltage.

I can't think of any reason why it would matter whether it was AC or DC applied to the operating rails - I use AC because I have it on my postwar transformers. Cars which have a vibration mechanism (cattle car comes to mind) might not work on DC, especially if there was any filtering. The vibration mechanism needs the momentary zeroing of the voltage in the waveform to operate properly.

yours in accessorizing
Fred W

[BobbyDing]

Thanks all.

Bobby