Question 1: I don't understand why Lionel designed its transformers so that while the ZW and KW have U as the common to go to the outside running rails, most others are designed with the U to go the the center rail. It really causes confusion. Thats mostly a philosophical questtion. A more real question for me is why on type RW, the diagonal combination of terminals A and D gives you a usable pair, but the opposite diagonal does not. Further, noting that the that pairs AD and BD give you fixed voltages at the maximum value of AU and BU, is D merely a fixed tap at the same postion in the windings as the wiper attached to the U terminal is at when max voltage is being called for?
Question 2. I have a lot of the Tenshodo, NJ International and Kemtron dual coil spring loaded switchmachines. I am need of the spring wire v shaped linkages. I don't generally see them on ebay. Any suggestions where to get them?
The answer to the second question is yes.
I'm not sure I understand the first question. I guess that by the "opposite diagonal" you mean the BC pair, which supplies 6.1 volts. That would be usable if you needed 6.1 volts for something, just like AD gives you 18.8 volts, which is usable where you might need 18.8 volts.
Aside from the compensating winding for the whistle circuit, the transformer has three secondary windings in series, AB at 2.8 volts, BC at 6.1 volts, and CD at 9.9 volts. Which of A, B, and C you pick for the return or common of the track circuit determines how much of those secondary windings you are using. AU is 8.9 to 18.8 volts; BU is 6.1 to 16 volts; CU is 0 to 9.9 volts. In each case, the wiper U moves from one end to the other of the CD winding.
Bob Nelson
So you are indicating that the BC pair does supply an output, but it is unidentified. I guess Lionel thought it to be too low to be of any interest.
You comment that the answer to the second question is yes applies, I imagine, to my supposition that D is a fixed voltage tap at the same postion on the winding as the wiper reaches when max voltage is called forth. Thus when matched against A or B, it yields a fixed voltage equal to the maximums of the two adjustable ranges.
No comment, I guess, as to why they switched their scheme for designating the terminal which they favored for running rails from the smaller transformers to the larger ones.
THanks
I think you said all there is to be said about it, that it is confusing. Beyond that, no one seems to know why they did it. They also put the green light on the bottom of their color-light signals and called crossings "crossovers". Why, no one knows.
I just looked at a O-31 crossover/crossing that I have, and it is labeled "crossing." In a recent catalog, Lionel calls all of these things crossovers. I have always called them crossovers for 50+ years. However, a crossover is also a pair of switches used to allow a train to crossover from one track to another. Here is a lot of definitions of railroad terms, but crossover is mysteriously missing. Diamond is there, and of course, means a crossing or crossover.
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/glossry1.Html
From http://www.american-rails.com/railroad-infrastructure-and-property-terms.html :
Crossing: Commonly known as a diamond, they allow for railroad tracks to intersect each other at any type of angle that does not allow for actually switching on to the other track. It is also the term often referred to the place where highways and railroad tracks meet commonly known as grade crossings.
Crossover: Facilitates the movement of rail equipment onto parallel tracks via back-to-back switches
stuartmit sent me this by email:
Bob--Regarding "windings in series, I (not an elect engineer" Have always pictured the various fixed voltage posts as essentially a copper wire "branching from the coil of wound wire on the secondary, and of course the stepped down voltage depends on how many windings are in the circuit, so the more windings, (as I recall) the less voltage. Thus a "branch" or tap only a few windings "down" the coil yields the highest voltage; a tap all the way down the coil yields the least voltage. Is thay what you refer to when you say windings in series? I realize that t may be the proper term; I just never thought of it that way. I think that it also means that absolutely any pair of outlet terminals at all shoul yield some output voltage, although Lionel may not have marked them all on the transformer....Thanks
The voltage provided by each turn of secondary winding is the same as every other turn, so the voltage across any secondary winding is proportional to the number of turns in the winding and increases with the length of the winding rather than decreases. Likewise, when windings are connected in series, their voltages add.
"Series" means this: If there are two separate windings, WX that produces 3 volts and YZ that produces 5 volts, and you connect X to Y, then the voltage between W and Z might be 8 volts. (I say "might be" because, if the windings are wound in opposite directions, their voltages will subtract rather than add; and the result will be 2 volts.)
Toy train transformers typically comprise several secondary windings permanently connected in series. By the time of World War II, these included one winding with a wiper or roller that could connect to any point on that winding and so produce a variable voltage between the wiper and one end of the winding. The 1033, for example, has two windings (ignoring the winding in the whistle circuit), one that puts out 5 volts and one with a wiper that puts out 11 volts. The ends of the 5-volt winding are terminals A and B; and the ends of the 11-volt winding are B and C. The wiper is U. When the handle is fully counter-clockwise, the wiper is not touching any winding, and so the output voltage between U and any other terminal is zero. When you start to turn the handle, the wiper touches the B end of the larger winding, and 5 volts, the voltage of the smaller winding, appears between the A and U terminals. As you turn the handle, the wiper includes more of the larger winding, in series with the smaller one, so that its voltage adds to that 5 volts, until the wiper reaches the C end of the winding and the AU voltage is up to 16 volts, the sum of the two windings' voltages.
It is possible that you are confusing a variable transformer with a rheostat. (Perhaps you read Peter Riddle's books--he doesn't know the difference.) A rheostat is a variable resistance. These were (and are) used with fixed transformers to control trains, mostly before the war. The rheostat is put in series with the transformer and controls the current by controlling the resistance. Since increasing the resistance decreases the current, adding more turns (of resistance wire) with a rheostat has the same effect as including fewer turns (of secondary winding) with a variable transformer, that is, either one slows the train down.
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