Accessory Car Voltage

[Anonymous]

I know this will sound smart-alecky, but it is not intended to: the cars and other accessories run best at the voltages where they run best.

Because I own a lot of different accessories, the only real answer that I could find was to power the troublesome ones from their own transformers, or at least their own posts. Without going into boring detail, I once had a layout run by two ZW's and a KW. Only one set of posts on one of the ZW's powered the train -- all the remaining posts sent customized voltages to accessories and turnouts.

This may be an absurdly expensive way to go, but Lionel does offer small 1.8 amp (or thereabouts) little accessory transformers for just this purpose.

[Anonymous]

Luther,

             I have found that most operating cars work best at 10-14 volts.  Milk cars usually work best at 10-12 volts, while cattle and horse cars work better at 12-14 volts.  Just experiment between 10-14 until you find the spot where all the cars operate well.  The cars that rely on the plunger (mostly operating boxcars) work well at most any voltage.

[luther_stanton]

What voltage do operating cars, either the ones activated by a center plunger or ones activated through the truck shoe operate best on? I am setting up a remote control track section – the tubular one with the center rail magnet and additional rails for the truck shoe. I will mostly be running Moe and Joe (I think they are activated through the truck shoe but will not know until next Monday ;)) and perhaps a milk car in the future.

The reason I can set up a fixed voltage to run the accessories instead of track voltage is that I have a 3530 generator car. The manual states the car should be run at less than 14 volts. I am running TMCC and will set up a siding for this car powered at 12 volts. Will Moe and Joe and milk cars run well at 12 volts also, would 14 be better, or less? It looks like the remote control track section can be powered from the track or from separate voltage.

Thanks,