KW Transformer not doing the job

That is your only fixed voltage choice with a KW - 6 v or 20v - if you are running trains with A-U & B-U.

If the 4090 was connected to the rest of the layout using "U" to the center rail and the common "A" to outside rails, the the 4090 was providing 16v to the whistle. If you run trains with the KW only on A-U, then you can connect the whistle to "B" and set it at 16 volts(or whatever level you wish for satisfactory operation) to duplicate the 4090 setup.

@ADCX Rob posted:

That is your only fixed voltage choice with a KW - 6 v or 20v - if you are running trains with A-U & B-U.

If the 4090 was connected to the rest of the layout using "U" to the center rail and the common "A" to outside rails, the the 4090 was providing 16v to the whistle. If you run trains with the KW only on A-U, then you can connect the whistle to "B" and set it at 16 volts(or whatever level you wish for satisfactory operation) to duplicate the 4090 setup.

Like Rob said. Or leave the 4090 hooked up to run the shed only. Or get a Z-4000! The KW is a pretty good transformer but the accessory post voltages were poorly laid out. No idea why Lionel did the KW this way.

Rod

One possibility, might not be worth the effort, would be to put a step down transformer to drop it from 20v to 16v on the fixed output.  I may be wrong (son of an EE, black sheep) if you put the ground on 6v and the hot path on the 20v fixed, wouldn't that give you 14v relative (and please don't try this unless someone else said it was okay), since ground and hot are relative voltages?

@bigkid posted:

One possibility, might not be worth the effort, would be to put a step down transformer to drop it from 20v to 16v on the fixed output.  I may be wrong (son of an EE, black sheep) if you put the ground on 6v and the hot path on the 20v fixed, wouldn't that give you 14v relative (and please don't try this unless someone else said it was okay), since ground and hot are relative voltages?

Only problem with this idea is that 022 switches (and most others) are grounded to the track, so the same as the U post return from track power. So if you hook the 6V post to the same ground you are essentially shorting out the 6V output, which will cause overheating, followed by smoke, and other unpleasantness!

Rod

The OOP (original original poster) should have used both transformers, in phase.