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I see Marx mixed in with Lionel quite frequently in lots described as Lionel.

The LED driver concept takes to me back in the 80's. There was the Lm 3606 (trusting my memory) It became obsolete and never until now, heard of a replacement. I grabbed the data sheets so thank you for that. It is an alternative to calculating resistance in my small world. For a modest cost it...

This is great! Just when you think you have a handle on the subject. Something else pops up.

I always used the breadboard. Test out the result and tweek to please. The math just gives a starting point.

The 12 volt LED is only wired with a resistor to work at 12 volts. It is after all a 3 volt LEd so it does consume less. Using a diode causes a ,7 volt drop which is similar to adding a resistor. Now the LED uses 20 milliamps at it's top brightness. but will work down to 5 milliamps. Use Ohms...

That is a great quote, " Because it ran backwards"

The next step is using a multimeter to measure the polarity of the engine connections, the track and transformer output. From there it can get more complicated. Also, some prewired LEDs can be a universal connection regardless of AC or DC and work within a voltage range, Just using an LED and a...

Here are the pics. Well, it is a picture of the face plate.

The thing was rusty with a stiff old cord. I have never taken one of these apart, so it got a paint job and updated cord. I messed up on the stripping and took out the top writing. Had to replace it with a picture. The side plate came in handy and covered all the drip marks. The terminals were...

I went back to the Marx set and found this transformer in need of help. The top comes off with the nob and has two sides with tabs. Here is the seam between the bottom and top. This transformer has the two variable voltage terminals and two fixed voltage terminals. If you look closely, this is...

Years ago the kids met Thomas the Tank Engine at the Portland Maine Narrow Gage Museum and had a ride along the bay. Search result. We rode in actual coaches too.

Actually, I get them off of bagels.

You would have a better chance. The motors are DC and have slower speeds. The whole point is to have hand held control of multiple engines. You can visit Lionel and view their TMCC info pages. No it is not worth coverting older AC engines to TMCC. I am sure you can succeed but that level of...

To continue, two track pieces to stop. How many to slow down? Four? Once the engine is in that block it will slow to set speed. This means that you need 6 pieces of track before each switch. The table is getting larger and larger. O gage trains on three rail was for kids and not a scale thing...

I worked with a braking system in G scale, offered to make it appear more realistic. The back and forth was 22 ft long and there just wasn't the travel time to do that. Analog trains are AC and have 5 volts on the track . They just do go slow enough for something to be realistic. The best you...

You want to do this with analog trains?

I use bread tabs to identify wires running under a table. On homemade timer and signal boards I use craft paint on the terminals. Red is positive green is common, yellow is AC for input which is always on the right. On a relay connection it could the LED color.

Here is a link to the Modern Gateman Manual from Lionel. SKU: cs-6-81063 This shows how to wire an old Gateman to Fastrack.

This is a new station, that was given to me, that has seen better days.

All Marx Whistle Stations are not the same. I was recently reminded that some stations were lighted. I was given a rusty hulk of a station. I cleaned it up and the whistle worked but I realized that it had two terminals. Thinking back to my table I am sure that one had three. So it did!. Here...