Lionel O gauge and power

[Anonymous]

We started with a New York Flyer set, which came with the Standard Controller and a 40w/3a tranformer. We have since added a number of cars to our set up, including some of the lighted passenger cars. Unfortunately, the 40w transformer does not seem to be able to keep up with our expanding train.

We'd like your thoughts on some of the options we've come up with. One would be to repair an old ZW (from the mid-1960s, passed down in our family). Another would be to purchase a new controller/80w/5a transformer that would support RailSounds.

But: 1) will the older ZW support RailSounds on our new trains? 2) how far will the 80w tranformer take us? 3) since purchasing a new ZW is not an option for us right now, is there any other solution we should consider?

Thanks for your help.