Marx whistle/light station connections

Thomas

Many of the Marx transformers has an AC track power output AND an accessory power output. Does yours have both?

Steve

No Steve only AC 7-13 volts to trains

I wired the station as your diagram showed and it works great. The light only comes on when power is on. I'm assuming  that I would need a transformer that has  "accessories" terminals for the light to stay on all the time? thanks for your help  Happy New Year Forgot to ask what gauge wire for all this. Are different gauges used for power to track for trains and then for accessories?

Marx used the same gauge wire for accessories as track, the keep it cheap & simple method. You could get another transformer with an accessory output to use only one transformer. My preference is a separate transformer for accessories that way the train does not slow when power is diverted elsewhere.

Steve

Thank you Steve, your information really helped. I did some searching within this forum and found lots of info. on Marx,also on the All Gauge Model Railroad page. Should have done that earlier  Thanks again.  Tom

I know the station can be hooked up so the light is on all the time. I use a push button switch to activate the whistle. I am about 600 miles from the station right now, but I know one terminal is a common or ground, one is the hot for the light and the third is hot for the whistle.

So the common for the station  would go directly to the common on the transformer, the light would go to hot (or the variable if you have no hot). The switch would be wired with one side going to the same transformer connection as the light's "hot" and the other side to the whistle's "hot" terminal.

If you like I can draw a diagram for it (a picture is worth a thousand words), but it will be a few days before I can get home to verify which terminal is which.

J White

J, A drawing would be great whenever you get a chance, I'm sure it will help,it gets a bit confusing. Thanks, Tom

Here's the wiring diagram I drew up. I am nearly certain the terminals from left to right go Whistle, Light, Common. On the diagram I have them labeled; if I messed this up you may have to swap  a wire or two

Naturally, the instruction manual that Steve posted is the correct way to hook this station up. The top diagram in this scan shows that method hopefully in a bit clearer way.

The bottom diagram shows (I think) how to hook up the station to an insulated rail section, so a passing train would activate the whistle instead of the push button. My layout that this station resides on is only 3' x 5' give or take, so I didn't want that whistle going off that frequently. The light will go out when you stop the train though with this diagram. If you get a transformer with separate accessory terminals, the wiring is similar, and so it also is similar if you opt for two separate transformers. Finally, if your transformer is one of those 25 watt ones (looks like about a 2" cube), the transformer may not have enough juice to run the train and the whistle.

I hope some of this is of use to you; hopefully I drew it right.

J White

J White, thanks for the sketch. Have not had a chance to try it yet, just getting over the flu!! Knocked me out good, like getting hit by a train so to speak. Will let you know how it goes. Tom