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Will it be OK to run a postwar 3620 searchlight car on a command-control layout with a fixed 18 volts from a Lionel 180-watt brick?

I don't think I need to be concerned about the light bulb or the heat from it; I can switch to a 24-volt bulb. But what about the 64-year-old Vibrotor? Should I be concerned about it burning out?

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@Lou1985 posted:

Switch to a higher voltage bulb. The vibrator motor should be fine.

Picking this thread up again, and perhaps a doubting Thomas on the vibrator motor.

I have not run my 3620 much but put it on the track recently to run it as part of a MOW train. It has an 18-volt bulb but at 18 volts for 5 minutes, that whole end of the car and the metal shell for the light are as hot as a firecracker. BTW, it is not the bulb since I tried this with no bulb and the same super-hot result- hence this is due to heat from the vibrator coil.

Seems this level of heat can't be good for this ancient vibrator coil device.  Any ideas on cutting the heat / voltage a bit while running in command mode- the track is on Lionel bricks so 18 volts is what it is.

We may have no joy in Mudville tonight.

The hot wire comes in from the roller to a common solder joint. From there a wire goes to the vibrator solenoid and one wire goes to the light bulb. They both use the common frame ground as you see in the next picture and I don't see any way to separate the common ground since, as the third picture shows, the light and vibrator are more or less a single piece. YMMV but this vibrator is pretty dead below 12 volts but runs well above that.  Back to the drawing board it appears.  At 12 volts it hums along with very little heat build up.

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The searchlight car draws about 1 amp at 12 VAC and 1.3 amps at 18 VAC. In theory, a 5 ohm, 5 watt resistor in series with the pickup roller would pull down the 18 VAC into a more desirable voltage range.

But why tamper with such a venerable car, especially if it is working so well conventionally? I sometimes wish my 494 Rotary Beacon used the same vibrator coil as the searchlight car.

@Bruce Brown posted:

The searchlight car draws about 1 amp at 12 VAC and 1.3 amps at 18 VAC. In theory, a 5 ohm, 5 watt resistor in series with the pickup roller would pull down the 18 VAC into a more desirable voltage range.

But why tamper with such a venerable car, especially if it is working so well conventionally? I sometimes wish my 494 Rotary Beacon used the same vibrator coil as the searchlight car.

Bruce, respecting history is a good point, a resistor is all I could think of too.  I was thinking about running  it more but I hated to kill it as hot as it was getting.  Although, this is the first time I noticed the heat and have  been running it in command mode for probably five years. so it may well be tougher than I imagined.

Arthur, that voltage divider was the point of csxjoe's suggestion that I was checking out. The P = i^2 * R power was heating things up a bunch as Bruce's calculations show. 1 squared versus 1.3 squared is a good jump in watts.

@Bruce Brown posted:

I bench-tested the 5 ohm series resistor using 18 VAC and it worked perfectly at a fast, but not overly noisy, speed. I then tried 10 ohms. It rotated very slowly but was acceptable.

Thanks for checking that, you may be a bad influence on me,  changing historical Lionel cars.  I think I have a 5 watt resistor someplace, need to check the ohms.  It looks easy to tuck it up under the car.  I could run a lower volt bulb too (which I think I have).

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