Trains.com

MTH 4000 and Lionel RW transformer / common ground

1168 views
1 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin, TX
  • 10,096 posts
Posted by lionelsoni on Monday, January 24, 2011 8:31 AM

Unless some of your accessories are activated by control rails (insulated outside rails), which includes anti-derailing turnouts like the 022 or 5121 powered from your accessory transformer, there is no need to connect the two transformers.

Bob Nelson

  • Member since
    December 2010
  • 1 posts
MTH 4000 and Lionel RW transformer / common ground
Posted by capote59 on Sunday, January 23, 2011 6:33 PM

I am trying to wire my layout using the MTH 4000 transformer for the variable voltage for the track(actually two separate tracks) and a RW Lionel transformer for the constant voltage for the accessories. I am a novice at this. I have read that the two transformers need to be hooked up with a common ground. I have the wires for the layout connected to Track 1 and Track 2 terminals on the MTH 4000 and the accessories(via a terminal block) hooked up to B and D on the RW. My basic questions is this. For the common ground between the two transformers should I connect any of the ground black terminals on the MTH 4000 to the U terminal on the RW? For conveniance, I am using one of the constant voltage black terminals on the MTH 4000 rather than the variable voltage ground for Track 1 and Track2 - I assume that that makes no difference?

Thanks for any help. 

Chris Johnson

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month