HELP!!! Big time!

[Anonymous]

I am new to the model railroading hobby and will be getting a Flying Scotsman from England. I am facing the obvious problem of wanting to plug it in and run it Christmas day but not sure what kind of electricity converter I need to buy to make this oo scale briti***rain run on our us standard power! Help! Anyone?

[Anonymous]

To my knowlege, British Modelers us the same 12V DC power for running their trains as we do, so as such, any normal US Power Pack for Model trains should run it. Some of you Brits might want to step up to the plate if I am wrong.

James.

[Anonymous]

the set comes with its own power pack. As it is a briti***rain set i assume it is made to run on 220/240 rather than our 110/120. I picked up a power converter from Radio Shack put it only fits a two round prong plug where as the plug shownwith the set has three flat prongs, one on top two under that.

[michaelstevens]

The Hornby train set (for sale in Britain) almost certainly would only have the 240 volt rated transformer/controller -- the plug you describe confirms that.
I am not aware that Radio Shack carries 110v to 12v DC transformer/controller -- remember that you will need the controller feature to vary the speed.
Recommend that you visit a hobby shop or order one on line -- e.g. from Trainworld.

[vsmith]

A quick trip to a travel shop might turn up a plug adaptor that will allow you to use a regular outlet. The adaptor is plugged into the wall outlet the the Brit powerpack can be plugged into the adaptor and away you go. Just tell the salesperson you have an appliance coming from England that you need to adapt to US outlets, they should have an adaptor plug that will work.

[michaelstevens]

"vsmith's" idea might work for a hairdryer or shaver but is definitely not recommended for a train set's transformer/controller.
At best you'll only get 6 volts DC.
At worst you might get nothing !

[Big_Boy_4005]

Your best bet may be to buy a standard North American power supply, but now I'm not sure if Hornby is AC or DC. The travel store idea probably won't work because those adapters are step down 240 to 120, and you need step up 120 to 240. I'm not sure what travelers from Europe to North America do. If the answer is to buy a new hair dryer, then guess what...... buy a new power supply.

[Anonymous]

Ok.

The Brits run heavy volts. We Amis run lighter volts. Now. The Engine requires 12 volts DC. Solution is simple. Store the power pack that came with the set and go to your hobby shop and buy an american power pack like a Tech 4.

Dont get confused by all the plug talk. I would not attempt to convert here to there or vice versa.

Let me know how it runs!

Lee

[Anonymous]

the British stuff uses the same voltage on the rails (12V DC) but if you plug the british power pack into the wall and feed it 120V AC 50Hz instead of the 230V AC 60Hz we use in europe then it won't work right.

do as the man says and get a US power pack.

neil

ps. that loco is a nice one.

[Anonymous]

IT will run on 110 power. The Briti***ransformer knocks down the 240 to 12 volt power. I ran mine with a standard cheap bachmann transformer.
I'm stationed in England, and ran it in my base housing on 110 power.
Paul H. Liddiard

[dharmon]

Yes get a US transformer and put the stock one in the closet. I ran my US stuff in Europe using a European 220/240 power supply. Most HO stuff just needs 12 Volt DC. Both Euro and US tranformers supply this to the rails, only the input differs.

[Anonymous]

Get yourself a standard US transformer. Hornby trains use 12v DC to run, the same as all US model trains. I run both Hornby and Athearn from the same power unit, so I know this works.

[Big_Boy_4005]

One slight technical note here gang. Transformers deliver AC power, power packs deliver DC. Both reduce house current to train voltage (that's the transformer part), but a power pack also has a rectifier to convert AC to DC.

But we all agree on two things.

BUY A NEW ONE and HAVE FUN [:D]

[Anonymous]

Just so everyone Tehcnicle jargon is stragiht.

Transformers change voltage of current from a higher voltage to a lower voltage or vice versa.

Rectifiers change the current from AC to DC or DC to AC. So the little black box that everyone calls a Transformer should be called a rectifier.

James

[Big_Boy_4005]

No , it is called a power pack because it combines a transformer and a rectifier all in one box. High voltage AC in, low voltage DC out.

Rectifiers do not change DC to AC! In overly simple electronic terms, AC is a wavy line, and DC is a straight line. A rectifier can only straighten a wavy line, it CANNOT turn a straight line into a wavy line. An alternator is one device that can perform that task, but that discussion takes us well beyond the scope of the original question.

I, however, do use a transformer, as I run Lionel trains on low voltage AC. NO RECTIFIER NEEDED.

I wasn't sure if Hornby trains ran on AC or DC, but the consensus here is DC, so as far as I'm concerned that issue is closed.

[Anonymous]

The Hornby I have is spec'd as follows;

C912 Transformer (wall wart)
Primary: 230V - 50Hz (input)
Secondary: 16V - 13VA (output)
(means its pulling about 16V / 13VA = 1.230769 Amps)
(and 1.230796 * 220 = 270.76928 Watts max load no doubt)
(40watt 110 to 220 step up converter from radio shack would
eventually melt.)
(we of course use 60Hz here in the US, means train will run a bit
faster than on 50Hz but it'd work, don't crank it wide open too often
or for long periods of time tho. [:D])

Plugs into the;

Train Controller
Input: 16V AC
Outputs: 0-12VDC for train.
16VAC for accessories (lights and things)

My only question is;

Will an MRC Tech 4 200 or 220 work ok with it?
I find conflicting specs about both models on the web and the mrc home site doesn't list the specs for each model or I couldn't drill down to it.

If someone owns an MRC Tech 4 200 or 220, could you please post all the specs for them (input voltage, output voltage, etc...)

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

There is an LHS within another LHS, unfortunately I have blanked out on the name of it, its in Canada (in a suburb of Vancouver, BC). The larger LHS is Pacific Scale Rail so you might try and contact them for what you are looking for. The smaller LHS within Pacific Scale Rail is a store dedicated to Briti***rains so I know they will have what you want.

To contact them: www.pacificscalerail.com

[Anonymous]

Here's a reply I got from the good people at MRC concerning the use of an MRCTech4 200 or 220 with a Hornby;
====================================
ALL OF OUR DC POWER PACKS WILL RUN THE SET FINE...YOU HAVE TO WATCH YOUR VOLTAGE LEVELS THOUGH BECAUSE ALL OF THE VARIABLE OUTPUTS EXCEED 12 VOLTS
THE ONLY PACK WE MAKE WITH 16 VOLTS AC FOR ACCESSORIES IS THE CONTROL MASTER 20 #AA444
====================================
Once you get everything hooked up, you'll probably want to put a volt meter on the tracks and mark on you controller where, between stop and full, you hit the magical 12V mark. Then, don't crank the throtle open beyond that spot or you could let all the magical black smoke out of the engine.

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of British steamers that are designed to run on 12 volts but these long legged beauties just don't look right crawling around at a scale 100-120 kliks. The addition of a few extra volts will add the necessary realism.

As I child I put 24 volts through my Tri-ang 4-6-2T and achieved a respectable distance jump. It survived this abuse for many years. I have also overun an electric 8mm camera by quadrupling the voltage and got some terrible slow motion footage. I also doubled the top speed on my BSA bantam fitted a huge rack of carburettors on my 850 Mini and am currently running several horribly overclocked computers.

Perhaps you shouldn't be taking advice from me, I may be a hooligan.

I hope you are getting track and points to go with this train as you will have to do some work to use it on H0 track due to the excessive wheel flange size.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by LightBender

I hope you are getting track and points to go with this train as you will have to do some work to use it on H0 track due to the excessive wheel flange size.

This shouldn't be a problem with the latest Hornby equipment. Hornby now fit metal wheels with fairly fine flanges to most if not all rolling stock - the coaches in the Scotsman set should definitely have these wheels, assuming it's one of the latest ones with 4 coaches. They'll run ok on code 75 track. The loco I'm not sure about, but I think they've been fitting finer wheels to these as well.