The technical prowess shown by the original Lionel team was amazing considering what they had to work with in the early part of the 20th century, however some things older is not necessarily better. One for sure is the original rubber wire cable that came with the O22 and other switches. 1st unless you were building a midget layout, the cable is way too short. Next after just a few years the cable becomes brittle and eventually is unusable. If you run bootstrap power you will need a separate cable for that. Then if I want to run power taps for the track, another cable. Sooo, if I have to run a cable to control the switch, why not have it do a lot more? This conversion will also provide constant switch bootstrap power, an additional power tap for the center rail of the track, and all normal switch and remote control functions The only parts you will need are:
15 feet or so of 4 conductor cable. A 2.5mm power plug, to replace the boot strap, soldering iron, some solder and about 10 minutes of your time. If you wish a kit will be available soon from TinMan3rail.com for about 10 bucks with shipping, and includes the wire, 2.5 mm plug, with wires soldered on, and 15' of cable. If you need more than the 15' cable, or 3' to the transformer, let us know and we will extend it for you to your specs
The short cable is to be wired to the transformer. The long cable is to be wired to the switch.
The transformer cable is about 3' long and is stripped of the insulation at the 3' mark about 3" worth.
The red and black wire go all the way from the transformer cable thru the longer right cable untouched.
The green wire is pulled out of the 4' piece of cable, and wired to the solder terminal next to the green light . The white wire is cut 1/2 between the 2 rolls of cable. The white wire that is part of the transformer cable is wired to the switch solder lug. The white wire from the long cable is soldered to the red light bulb solder lug.
The end of the 3' cable:
The red wire goes to accessory power that you would normally run to the boot strap.
The black wire goes to the track power terminal that is connected to the center rail of the track the switch is hooked to.
The white wire is hooked to the common terminal on the transformer.
The long cable
The red wire will go to the center terminal of the 2.5mm plug.
The black wire will go to the outside (barrel) connection of the 2.5mm plug.
The 2.5 mm plug will go directly into the 022 switches. For some of the newer switches, you need to use a 2.1mm.
The green wire goes to the right screw down terminal on the switch assembly.
The white wire goes to the left screw down terminal on the switch assembly (if your switch works backwards reverse the green and white wires).
The center terminal of the switch is not used. Originally it provided a ground to the remote control switch, which is now being provided directly from the transformer.
Next up! Did you know that each switch draws 1/3 of an amp or 6 watts of transformer power just from the light bulbs? Not a big deal you say? I have 39 switches on my layout! Do the math. Gunrunner a great contributor to the O gauge forums, has worked out a design to replace the lights in the passenger cars with LED's. The idea is more power to run the engines. I have already converted all my switches to run on DC vs. transformer AC. That was easy, but high power 19 volt DC power supplies are expensive. Laptop 19 volt 3 amp supplies are available for cheap. Am working now on getting rid of all the screw and or bayonet light bulbs and replacing them with LED's, which should be able to be powered with a cheap power supply. Biggest issue is appearance of the remote controls. Hope to have a design in a few weeks, and eventually will incorporate it into the switches we sell at TinMan3rail.com
