How to Make A Williams Engine Run Slower

See the first post on my blog. Will work with single or dual motored engines.

Can also do series wiring of dual motored engines. Pull 1 each of unlike colors (usually yellow and blue) from the reverse board and connect together.

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/Bl...tegoryMain?catId=426

Dale H

Cut and tape off the wires to on motor.

Wire as above(green wire as supplied by you).

Done.

If you are using TMCC Conv, you can program the PowerMaster so that it can start out real slow.

Good stuff!

Dale H, your link is a really valuable resource. Again

Dale H is the man.

Thank you for the information.

Don

This is what I use. Its a type of thermistor called a current inrush limiter. Unlike diodes and resistors its a dynamic device that limits the startup current but not the top speed of the engine. Use one in series with each motor. The CL-150 linked above will work with the Mabuchi RS385 single motors used in virtually all current Williams products as well as Lionel Traditional engines. Use two CL 160's in dual motored engines
I might not be able to crawl at 1 MPH like a DCS engine but in slow race it would be pretty close.

Typical installation:



Pete

If you are running a remote control of any kind, you can just turn down the throttle at the transformer. I'm using a "Z' with a cab 1 and I turn it down to about 50-70% and works great. If you need more juice, just turn it up. Give it a try before cutting wires.

quote:

current inrush limiter

Pete,
How does the current inrush limiter work after the engine has been running for a while, seems like it would work on initial start up then not do much until it has cooled off for awhile.

I guess wheat I am asking is, How long does it take to cool off to where it would slow the engine on startup again?

Justin, The resistance is an inverse function of current. The higher the current, the lower the resistance and the cooler the temperature. When you select these devices you want the maximum current rating of the device to be within 85-90% of the maximum that motor might draw under load. Most of these devices have near zero resistance at full current rating. From experience with their use in other devices I can tell you they run pretty cool. I tried a number of different models before settling on the CL150 and CL160s. They are fairly inexpensive though higher than I when I bought mine. Try playing with them.

Pete

Given the speed issues, WHY do Williams/WBB locos with dual motors come wired in parallel from the factory? Wired either way, they can pull out tree stumps.
TomB

Because wiring the motors in series has a sometimes undesirable side effect. The motors will exhibit a differential action... if one truck loses traction and slips, the other truck/motor stops. The stopped motor has resistance approaching zero, and the slipping motor gets twice the normal voltage, approximately doubling it's wheel speed.

This would be difficult to explain to buyers.

That said, later K-Line diesels had a DPDT switch on the bottom to switch between parallel & series.

ADCX Rob-
Thanks for the explanation.
TomB

ADCX Rob, had time yesterday to do your Williams fix (had printed out your diagram). Wow, what a difference! I only have 4 Williams powered units (E7, F3, NW2, and Metroliner) and I will now run them more now that they are more like turtles and not bunnys. Thanks again!

Tony Sincius
TCA# 97-45101

I installed cruise control and have them wired in parallel. They'll pull out tree stumps as slow or as fast as I like.

The jack rabbit starts with Williams parallel wiring are the result of highly efficient can motors getting hit with the initial starting voltage of about 8 volts from "regular" Lionel 3 rail transformers such as ZW's, LW's, etc.

There's no jack rabbit problem with MTH or modern Lionel transformers because they are made to work with can motors and actually start at 0 volts and work their way up from there.

Fred

I understand that the diodes drop the voltage, but why not just use resistors? Their purpose is to reduce the voltage, so that seems the logical choice to me. OK, that sounded like a smart@$$. Really, I'm no certainly expert; I'm just curious.

Thanks,
Rick

quote:

Originally posted by ricomon:
I understand that the diodes drop the voltage, but why not just use resistors?

Totally different beast. Resistors would dissipate a lot of power and the engine wouldn't go anywhere. Diodes have a fairly fixed voltage drop, around .8-.9 volts. A resistor's voltage drop would be dependent on the current flow.

Apples and oranges.

Ah, yes, current flow. Now why didn't I pick up on that? Thanks for clearing that up.

Well, I've shown what a idiot I can be when it comes to electronics.

Rick