Floor Layout power issues- what am I doing wrong?

You will get many opinions. From experience you have to break the 100 watt barrier and get a bigger transformer. A postwar LW will provide 125 watts but you won't like the struggle you'll have with your modern whistles and other sounds. MRC had made one that put out 130 watts. You might look for one of those. Do check your track pins. On older track you usually have to pull the pins out and clean inside the rail. It's no miracle cure. You have much resistance to overcome in wire, track joints, lock ons, etc and 80 watts isn't going to overcome it with bigger engines on a 6 x 12 layout. You may consider using your CW80 for powering your switch tracks and other accesories going forward and use a new higher wattage transformer for trains only.

Dump the CW-80.......OK with small layouts and locos w/o lots of 'stuff' on board. 

A bigger trans is not that costly......if running conventional a good used one is great. 

 

Also check over your track....everything good and tight, clean and no shorts......a good voltmeter will help. 

HI! Take the train off the track. Put 1 or 2 lighted passenger cars on the track. put the transformer up about half way and roll the cars around the loop by hand. if the lights dim anywhere, you may have dirty track or track pin issues. Also, if on carpet, the weight of the engine or train may cause track to sag into the carpet causing power loss. 3 lock-ons should be good. good luck!!

I concur with bigo426 that you need more amperage. I disagree on the resistance being a factor, unless you have really corroded pins. Powering the turnouts is probably using up what you need for the larger engines. Take the power away from the turnouts and the trains may run with the CW-80. Try that as an experiment to show you the amperage is not sufficient for trains, turnouts and incandescent lighted cars. The coils in the turnouts are hogs.

 

But, hook up a larger amperage transformer and all will run well.

Carpet and track don't get along very well.  The carpet is soft and there may be a lot of movement, both up and down, and side to side at your track joints.  the bus wiring is your first positive move.  Clean all the track, splay the outer-most pins a little bit to make a tighter joint.  If you can afford a set of track pliers, use them to insure tight fitting pins.  Pull loose pins, use the track pliers gently so as to not deform the openings, and re-insert the pins.  Short of soldering each joint, or installing a jumper at each joint, this is the best you will be able to do.  I ran carpet central for years, and it was always a challenge to keep the track together and trains operating correctly.  But, it can be done.

 

Don't lose hope.  You can win this one!  Good luck.

 

 

Yes, I agree with Dave, dump the CW-80. I was lucky and had a post war ZW from my Dad that worked out great with a circuit breaker lock on. I soon out grew even that one quickly. If you are going to run TMCC only, then just buy the 180watt bricks and the lock on circuit breakers... very economical.

Sam,

 

before rushing out and spending money on a new transformer, try a few things first.

 

create a simple circle of track with with two wired lockons

 

try your 2-8-0 and 4-4-2 on that small loop

 

let us know how they run.

 

also it might be very helpful to know the following:

 

are you running on carpet?

 

which specific engines are you running, the 2-8-0 and the 4-4-2?

 

what diameter is you circle?  36, 42, 54.....

 

What lighted passenger cars are you running O27?  scale?

 

what gauge wire are you running from transformer to track?

 

Do you have a multimeter?

 

BTW the CW80 is not the best transformer but it's better than most think it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also don't forget that you need one power feed every 4 to 5 tracks sections....

A common cause of erratic loco operation is poor lubrication.  I recommend 5W-20 motor oil.  It lasts forever and never dries out.  Make sure everything that turns or slides is lubed.  Lube the gears, the shaft that the idler gear turns on, the armature bearings, the axles for the wheels, etc.  The fact that the green light is blinking on and off indicates the locos are pulling too much current.  Lubes to stay away from are 3 in 1 oil, WD-40, Lionel Lube, light grease, sewing machine oil, white lithium grease, etc.  

You need a bigger transformer. Electronics (especially MTH) can use more power than we think.

 

A bigger transformer is never a bad idea. Not free, but, when the small transformer is eliminated, most things run better.

 

The same is true of tight curves and switches. The fewer, the better. 

Welp, seems pretty unanimous that I need more oomph behind the throttle. Thank you everyone for the advice.

Right now I'm running on wood or tile floors with O42 or O54 curves. I'd like to go bigger, but it's not practical in the space I have.

S