Powering Accessories Directly with Lio PowerHouses?

[Anonymous]

I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who might be able to answer my power question below. All opinions & comments welcome.

I need additional power for accessories since my ZW is fully occupied powering track districts on my medium-sized layout. Is there a way to use an additional PowerHouse brick by itself to power a large group of accessories at a pre-set voltage e.g.12v? I thought of the the FasTrack Lockon, but I don't see how it would allow control of the voltage.

Maybe it just can't be done and I'd be better off with another small 80w transformer.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Bob W.
Houston

[Anonymous]

PH bricks have a fixed voltage of 18 volts. The lockon has reset protection but no variable voltage. Lionel used to make a conventional controller that would team up with a PowerHouse. It was called a PowerStation. I haven't seen one in years. Only issue with the smaller power supplies is that they are smaller. If you have a lot of accessories/lights, you will probably need multiple units to accomodate them.

[Anonymous]

Chuck -- thanks for the info. I think the CW80's will probably be the easiest way to get the watts.

Bob

[jefelectric]

Quite an extensive thread on the other forum about using landscape lighting transformers to power accessories. Might want to check it out.

[otftch]

If you look around at shows or the net you can pick up an older high wattage (z,zw,kw)tranformer.The advantage is that with a larger transformer you won't have to worry about replacing it later.I use an MRC dual power 027 for my accessories and have two variable outputs for different voltages and two fixed.I advise looking for an older 40W to power any and all blinking lights so the rest don't dim when they blink.
Ed