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Reply to "Newbie intro/question"

Bobnatlanta posted:

Thanks all for the info and welcome!  I told a friend about this and he dug up an HO train and donated it to the cause as well.

Tommy F, that’s it!  Complete set except for the uprights on the flatcar.  What are the dowels and plastic ‘drums’ for?  Stuff to put in the gondola, on the flatcar, or....?  There was a bunch of other stuff in the styro box, some of which I recognized immediately as old GI Joe accessories (mostly broken weapons) and thought the dowels etc. might belong to other toys.

One more newb question - I’ve scrubbed the transformer (4150) and looked for some kinda marking, but still don’t know which terminal is which, and which should go to which rail.  Found a document that said right = common, but that didn’t say which way the box was oriented.  So clearing that up would be a real help.  I tested the train enough to know it works, just not sure it was going in the correct direction.  Sitting by the transformer with a sharpie waiting for a reply....

Cheers!

Bob

Hey Bob, cool set. That old 4150 'Trainmaster' transformer won't get you too terribly far but it is a bare bones, pure AC transformer, there's really not a  wrong way to set it up in this case. Just make sure the left terminal (looking at it with terminals on the top) goes to the center rail and the other goes to the outer rail. That's it! If you end up with more locomotives that have more features (bell, horn/whistle) , then you might want to get a transformer that actuates those features.

Edit -> yes, all the other miscellaneous stuff in the set (dowels and drums) makes great flatcar loads.

Hot and common lines are more used with operating accessories. Think of the common as - and the hot as +, even though this is A/C. Some transformers are labelled ABCU where ABC are different hot posts and U is common.

 

This site can be helpful too in identifying what you have:

https://www.tandem-associates....oneltransformers.htm 

Last edited by SteamWolf

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