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Will sending variable ac power from a z1000 through the power jack in a LionChief 10" terminal track "fry" the small circuit card in the terminal track? I like the convenience of the jack since the track is set up temporarily in the great tradition of going around the Christmas tree but I need the ac since I'm running a 1978 vintage Lionel "Blue Comet" Hudson with 4 coaches.

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Thanks. I've made a few terminal "cords" with the spade connectors as you've described which I use as "drops" for my permanent layout. For the Christmas tree circle, though, the jack will make it so easy to disconnect the z1000 and put it away when my kids & I aren't running the trains on it. We've run the LionChief Polar Express on the dc wall plug unit in previous years, but my kids want to run some of my older trains now. I'm concerned the "dangling" wires will get stepped on, pulled, etc. and the "spades" loosen after a few connect/disconnect cycles. Does FasTrack have a jack-fitted terminal track section designed for ac input?

Bill

You can always cut the cord off of the less capable LionChief power supply and re-purpose it or you can make your own with the appropriate 2.5mm x 5.5mm barrel connector.

There is over a century of tradition with AC on the 3 rails and essentially everything ever made will operate on AC, including all of LionChief family. The same is not true of DC - it can actually be destructive to products.

I believe one of the traces on the circuit board in the track section ended up being a weak link when I attempted this.  As I recall, I ended up hardwiring the connector to the rails and bypassed the circuit board.  Granted I also seem to recall that I was trying to run a Lionel Postwar dual motor F3 under the Christmas tree so it was probably drawing some amps that the starter set locomotives would never come close to.

In addition to the '78 Blue Comet, we were going to try my new Williams GG1 congressional which, being a dual motor with TB+, will draw a lot of current. I can understand that the copper foil on the circuit board in the LC terminal track will not handle this kind of current. I think I'll use the spade connectors this year and get and modify another terminal track per Jake's suggestion. I've already made a cord with the right jack. Any way to suggest that Lionel make a FasTrack terminal track with a jack and cord that would work with ac transformer terminals?

Bill

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