Starr Tec Hogger

A friend has used Hoggers on his conventional HO layout for many years and has no complaints. For those who are unfamiliar with the Hogger, here is the 100MW:

The 40MW is blue.

EDIT: I plan on using this on my future layout. Note that these are tethered walk-around throttles.

Dave, the 40 MW here is orange, if not looking at the end where the rating is you would not know they were different. The draw back is that there is only one control and cable.

Ray

At one point we ran the BSG modular layout , with a pair of  the orange Hogger's and later the Black one with blue lettering? they had enough power to Run 3 overland Brass SD40's with 100 cars, or AM multiple fp7s with the same consist.  On the second track we were using them to power both  AF Steam and diesel (Dual motor) trains .  At one point 4 or five us used them on our S Gauge  Home layouts. the only issue I see is  Chicago Models International,  No longer exists And if there is a fail-er with the hand held unit, I wouldn't know who can repair them.  The were good units and were capable of running ) scale an G also

I wonder if schematics are available for the hoggers or if someone might have a control available for the second unit.

Ray

@Rayin"S" posted:

I wonder if schematics are available for the hoggers or if someone might have a control available for the second unit.

Ray

try E bay

I tried both of the units on my home layout to operate an American Models FP 7. I was disappointed in the low speed performance. The remote would come up slowly to somewhere around two volts and than go rapidly to four volts, the train operates very erratically with the Hogger. I have a MRC 1500 powerpack that performs at low speed much better that the Hogger. Possibly the pot is bad, I only had the one control to test both units.

Ray

Hmmm, the friend that turned me onto the hogger has not had that problem on his HO layout; I suspect the handheld. Try spraying some De-Oxit (or similar contact cleaner) on the pot, it sounds like it might be dirty. It works quite well on vintage audio equipment.

@Rayin"S" posted:

I tried both of the units on my home layout to operate an American Models FP 7. I was disappointed in the low speed performance. The remote would come up slowly to somewhere around two volts and than go rapidly to four volts, the train operates very erratically with the Hogger. I have a MRC 1500 powerpack that performs at low speed much better that the Hogger. Possibly the pot is bad, I only had the one control to test both units.

Ray

and I never had a problem with speed control  , just the hand control not working,  If I remember correctly  we also tried  the Aristo Craft 10 amp unit , with  two  Aristo craft transmitters , and receivers to control the mainlines

About 30 years ago, I tested the 100MW version in an attempt to get better performance out of post-WWII Lionel O gauge trains.  I thought it was smoother than a traditional AC transformer, but not good enough to overcome limitations of the motor design and gearing.

They were quite expensive, top-of-the-line stuff back then.  I expect there are folks who would still pony up for one in good condition, in the secondary market.

@Ted S posted:

About 30 years ago, I tested the 100MW version in an attempt to get better performance out of post-WWII Lionel O gauge trains.  I thought it was smoother than a traditional AC transformer, but not good enough to overcome limitations of the motor design and gearing.

They were quite expensive, top-of-the-line stuff back then.  I expect there are folks who would still pony up for one in good condition, in the secondary market.

Considering that the Hogger is a DC power pack, I am not sure as to how you did that with P/W AC stuff.

@PRRMP54 posted:

Considering that the Hogger is a DC power pack, I am not sure as to how you did that with P/W AC stuff.

just fine , it (motors)  actually runs cooler on DC than AC 

@Dave Koehler posted:

just fine , it (motors)  actually runs cooler on DC than AC

I remembered that they used universal motors after I posted. I have a couple of quite old scale locomotive with wound-field motors and I was able to test them with my KW.