American Flyer"s Cow on the Track

[4Roberto]

How do I wire it to lionel three rail track so that the train stops when the cow is on the track and continues when the cow is off the track?  The accessory otherwise works.

[stebbycentral]

Roberto,

The accessory works by using a solenoid driven switch in the base to interrupt power to the positive rail of an isolated track section.  I am assuming that you could accomplish the same by connecting the control wire to the center rail of an isolated section of Lionel track.

 

[4Roberto]

I have connected the red, green, yellow, black and white wires as described in the American flyer directions. I have placed the plastic pins in the center rail. I have connected terminal #1 to the connecter within the block. I believe it should go to the center rail.  It does not supply power to the track. It doesn't help if I connect it to the outside rail.  I still get no power to the track.  In a video on Utube someone is demo this accessory and it show that he has two wires to the connector  in the blocked area. I can't see where the second wire goes.  Maybe something is wrong with the accessory.  Any thoughts?

[cwburfle]

Maybe my memory is faulty. As I recall, the AF cow on the track accessory is operated manually via a button or switch.
When the cow is across the track, the power to the center rail is interrupted. When the cow is not across the track, the power is allowed to flow.

I'd have to look it up for details.
I think I have the information somewhere.

Found a link: http://www.trainweb.org/s-trains/diagram/cow.gif

[arnoldafl]

From the referenced diagram and long term memory which may not be all that good anymore, it seems if you want to connect the white wire to the center track in a Lionel setup, you need to swap the yellow and black wires. That is connect the black wire to the high voltage terminal of the transformer ( A terminal I think) and the yellow wire to the common terminal (U ??). The cow on track works by disconnecting the white wire from the black when the cow is accross the track. If you connect the wires to the transformer as shown in the diagram you will have to connect the white wire to the outside tracks and isolate both outside tracks for that section of track.

Let us know if this works.

Bill

[cwburfle]

I got out my Flyer service manual. All it has is hook up instructions, which are available at the link I provided above. By examining the instructions:

The cow on the track is designed to work by disconnecting what Lionel people would consider to be the "ground" (as Bill wrote).
Here is what I would try to get it working on Lionel, insulating the center rail (may be the same as what Bill wrote):

- Green (post 2) - to control box - moves cow
- Red (Post 4) - to control box - moves cow
- White (Post 1) - to the track's center rail (of insulated section)
- Black (Post 3) - to your variable voltage post
- Yellow (from controller) - to your transformer's common (outside rails)

The down side is that now the accessory is operated by track voltage, and may not perform well.
In order to operate the accessory on fixed voltage as designed, you would need to set it up to interrupt the common to the track (insulate both outside rails), or modify the accessory.

I had one of these years ago and didn't care for it. Maybe this is the reason :)

 

[Sturgeon-Phish]

Try switch the white wire (screw  #1 on base) to the hot center rail, and the black on screw #3 to the outside rail.  The yellow wire from the controller need to go to the constant voltage accesory post on the transformer

 

Jim