american flyer99 talking station

[kevlis]

I am attempting to connect an American Flyer 799 Talking Station to a Fast Track connection. I am experiencing problems with activating the stop feature when the train hits the isolated section of the track. I am wondering if it is possible to activate this feature considering I am on a three rail system instead of the two it was intended for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[ben10ben]

Yes, this will work fine.

As I'm sure you know, there are four wires coming out of the 799 which get connected to the transformer. Normally, red, black, and green(through the button) would get connected to the "base" post on the AF transformer, while yellow wire gets connected to the "hot" terminal. 

On a typical three-rail layout, the two outer rails would be base, and the center rail hot. 

With the talking station, though, if you use this arrangement, you'll need to insulate the outer rails and have these be the ones switched on by the station. 

It's far easier, though, to just reverse the wiring. Connect the yellow wire in common with the outer rails, and the black, red, and green(through the button) to the same side as your center rail.

The white wire coming out of the station should then properly turn off the center rail of your 3-rail track. 

[Gray Cat]

Hi Ben10ben,

     I have a prewar station that is giving me a little trouble. It has had a new ribbon cable installed to replace the original cloth covered wiring. Although the "mechanic" had the best of intentions it seems he has wired it incorrectly. For example he has black as power to the light and a few other goofs, like the white is not on the cam that corresponds with a post war station I have.. It's like shooting in the dark trying to figure this all out without a schematic or another prewar station to compare to. By any chance do you have a service manual depicting the wiring or an explanation of the wiring on the cam?

Thanks, Pat

[Gray Cat]

Well with patience and perservance (plus a little help from this site) I figured it out. As I suspected my prewar station was wired incorrectly.. I moved things around, made some repairs and modifications to the reproducer (the previous owner had it in backwards by mounting the pins in a different spot and then adding 1 1/4oz of stick on weights!!!!! to make it return to the zero position. What are people thinking?) To put it back to correct configuration all I had to do was take out two screws and move the pins to those holes, putting the screws back in where the pins were! argggh). She was still running a little slow so a bit of oil on the motor bearings and now it's up to speed and working well.