MRC Pure Power Dual -- anyone using one?

[siberianmo]

Additional info . . . .

The dual power works just fine with my three S-gauge loco's, sound equipped. No problems whatsoever. Particularly like the meters, just a nice touch for my rather simplistic operation, but they are accurate enough to where I can set the speed by watching where the needles are. A "different" aspect of model railroading for me.

Later![tup]

Tom

[Jumijo]

I don't have any MTH locos. No Protosounds at all. MRC claims the Dual will work with ALL sound systems. Go to their web site, get a phone number and ask a tech just to be sure.

Plenty of power. Everyone raves about them. No issues with Thomas or Beeps like with a CW-80.

Jim

[Birds]

Jim,

Thanks for your comments. I would also be running in conventional mode.

Sound issues aside...

In terms of power, build quality, smoothness of the handles, ability to run accessories, etc. - how do you like the MRC Dual over the period you have owned it? Does it operate the trains and accessories correctly (with the exception of the sound issues you mentioned) all the time?

Do you have any Proto-Sound 2.0 engines? If so, does pressing the appropriate bell and whistle button combinations on the MRC Dual allow you to activate the Proto-Sound 2.0 functions in conventional mode per the Proto-Sound 2.0 instructions?

Birds

[Jumijo]

I have one. I also only run conventional. My Railsounds tender sounded sort of sputtery and drifted of and on until I got the throttle up over 10 v. Then it sounded ok. That's not the transformer's fault. Electronic horns and whistles, which include Thomas, the Railsounds Tender, and a Trainsounds FT deisel, all worked fine, as did the bells. But the two modern air whistles I have, a PWC 773 tender and the Polar Express tender don't do well at all. The throttle has to be way up in the 15 - 17 V region to elicite a faint whistle at best, and the trains slow way down when the whistle button is pushed. The slow down is considered normal by MRC, according to the flyer included with the transformer.
Thomas and my RMT Beep each ran fine without the impedence track usually required with a CW-80. A big plus.
The CW-80 had no problems with the whistles/horns/sounds, and never caused the trains to slow down when operating those functions. It did make Thomas and the Beep do some funky stuff, even with the impedence lighted track.
The whistle thing, I'm not so happy about. I bought an MRC Sound Station that actually sounds great and now, instead of the air whistle, I blast the digital whistle from the sound station. Charles Ro has these MRC Duals for $209.95. Add $6.00 if you need it shipped. A much cheaper alternative to the Lionel and MTH transformers.

Jim

[siberianmo]

Yes - I am using the Dual power with my S-gauge layout. Love it! No problems with any aspect of it's operating features.

Highly recommended unit! Got mine through http://www.portlines.com/ and at the time it was $100 off the "list" with free shipping and of course, NO tax! "Works" for me![swg]

Enjoy![tup]

Tom

[prewardude]

A past thread for you to consider:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53451

Regards,
Clint

[crip]

I have the MRC pure power single 130w unit. I only run conventional trains,a MTH with loco sound and cruise and a Lionel 442(modern). It has a very smooth power band compared to my CW80. The only problem I have is the horn on the 442 will only work with the loco in nuetral and the MRC at full power. I use an accesory power unit for lighting and operating accesories.

[Anonymous]

I don't have mine yet but have used one at a hobby shop. I intend on purchasing one as I've been told by dealers of both lionel and mth that it should work just fine with dcs or tmcc. If it comes down to overall price I've found that the mrc sells for about $110 to $160 cheaper than the ZW OR the Z4000. Unless anyone can come up with any reason against the mrc, I'd like to hear that point. The only potential problem I notice is you only have 1 acc port fixed at 14 volts. with dcs or tmcc not really a problem but if you need more power for conv operation or accessories and depending on size of layout, you may need to add more power in cheaper auxillary transformer(s) or buy 2 mrc's.

Have fun and enjoy!

[Birds]

MRC's Pure Power Dual is supposed to be a pure sine wave transformer with 270 watts of power.

If anybody has one, how do you like it?

Are you using it in conventional mode, or with TMCC or DCS?

Thanks,
Birds