I am new to G gauge, and am confused by the various voltages for transformers. I've seen 16V, 22V, and 24V, all with varying amperage. I am installing a shelf railroad in my office; assume 5 amps would operate a single, small locomotive and five short cars (4' radius.) What voltage do I need?
I'm interested in a track underlayment that will deaden sound and hold the trackage - either glued or nailed. I have some 1" "blue board" (compressed foam insulation board.) Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks from a newby.
INGANEER
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
Careful with Ralph's suggestion: His 6v locos draw like 5 amps.
I put 24v supplies in the shop, but on second thought, 18 might have been more reasonable, just to limit the maximum fast little kids often got going to a more reasonable rate. I find I like 10-12 on the track for my Aristo locos, and a tad more sometimes for my Bachmann. Of course, that's how you regulate the speed.
More important than volts is current. A "little" 1.8 amp power supply will run a small loco, but when you add lights, smoke, another loco, a few cars....
At the HO-scale club I belong to, we have had members run a G-scale steam engine outdoors on a loop of track during an open house using a standard Model Rectifier power pack that was designed for use on indoor HO or N scale layouts. I would not consider doing this on my home G-scale layout, though. For your shelf layout, provided you will only be running one engine at a time, one of these MRC power packs should be sufficient. They are rated at 12 VDC output but their regulation is so poor that most of them have an output of up to 16 VDC. The Amperage (VA) rating of the power pack is more critical than the voltage output because you will probably never run at full throttle.
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