Yardmaster96 posted:non-electronic? You'll need to help me understand that one. The transformer that came with the Yardmaster set I was given in 1971 plugged into the wall just like the one I have now. It was a small black box with a silver lever and two round knobs that screwed down a stud thus trapping the 24 gauge wire it came with and making electrical contact. The other end of the wire hooked under the spring loaded clip of a ctc connector. Sorry but I'm unfamiliar with non-electric transformers. Please advise.
Bmoran4 had it right, by electronic I do not mean electric. I suppose I could clarify... postwar transformers and similar devices that physically tap the transformer (using the term transformer here to refer to the actual electrical component of that name, not the entire device as it commonly means for toy trains) actually vary the voltage that they output. On the other hand, modern electronic transformers, typically referred to as "chopped sine wave" transformers on this forum, use a method called pulse-width modulation which uses semiconductors to cut off part of the output sine wave. in the case of using two modern controllers back to back the problem arises of chopping off different parts of the wave, effectively multiplying the "voltage drop".
In any case, if you use a postwar transformer as opposed to one with that uses semiconductors to chop the waveform, it will work as you planned.
I guess I'd expect someone given a set in 1971 to have grown up with all the "solid state" marketing wank and to know the difference in analog devices and transistor controlled ones.
