stan2004 posted:See this 8-year old OGR thread where member Bobby Ogage converts the #195 tower to LEDs. Apparently it is not a straightforward task. I did not find a concluding thread or consolidated how-to instructions so perhaps the project was abandoned? If I understand the discussion from back then, Lionel re-designed the #195 to use LEDs so that might be the closest exit.
But it seems to me the issue of sluggish distant switches is still an issue? As I stated earlier, the 1-2V drop on post A (14V, 0.5A) is much worse when the switch solenoid actually fires as the current jumps to a couple Amps. If I understand your 18 ft answer to my distance question, that's 9 ft from ZW to distant switch and then another 9 ft from switch back to the lever controller near the ZW? Hmm. That should not be a problem if you had a "pure" 22ga connection over that distance. But with connectors, splices, whatever who knows! I don't know what's easy to try but some experiments could include, 1) temporarily running a test piece of 14ga (or whatever heavy gauge you have) directly from ZW post A to the distant switch, or 2) taking a spare lever controller and attaching the 3-wire control cable with only a few inches of wire right at the distant switch. The idea is to ferret out where the drop is coming from. I may be getting ahead of myself here but I'm imagining some scheme to parallel a few strategically placed wire runs - much like the idea of wiring track voltage with multiple feeders.
Stan - all good info, thanks. I see now reading that thread that the reissues of the 195 had Christmas light bulbs in them, and there is a company on the Bay that sells an LED retrofit kit for those, so that might indeed be an option.
I did a closer measurement on the 022 wiring and it turns out the longest run is 18’ for the power (due to the daisy chain) and about 12’ back to the controller. I’ll do the tests you suggest out but also love the idea of parallel wire runs to the switches - brilliant! So simple and I do it with track power, yet for some reason I would have never thought of it for the switches. Thanks so much!
