Hello All Finally getting my Model Power water tower powered up. I do not remember what the recommended power voltage was. I have powered it up with 12 volts dc. I flashes very fast any idea how to slow the flash rate down, or is it possible the I have to much voltage going to it. Any Ideas would be appreciated. Thanks Larry
Most of those old accessories were designed to run off the accessory terminals of a DC powerpack, which were normallv 16 or 17 volts, so 12 volts shouldn't be too high. I have one of those towers on an NTRAK module, and I power it with a 9V walwart and I like the flash rate that gives.
I tried an internet search for instructions for the water tower but came up empty. I did find a few guys saying the flash rate was too fast.
I found the instructions for a Bachmann lighted fuel tank (probably the same light circuit).........they just say "connect spade terminals to AC accessory terminals on Power Pack (not included)", no actual voltage recommendation. My Bachmann pack says "16V" on the terminals. How fast is the light blinking ? In theory, because the tower is 160 times smaller, the light should be blinking 160 times faster than a real one. My guess is that would look WAY too fast, but that's what would be "true to scale". You can go to a local thrift store.....they usually have boxes of power supplies for phones, answering machines, printers,ect. for next to nothing. The output is printed on the supply......just pick what you want.
Is this the same one you have? I have this one and while I know the light works on the standard DC power pack accessories connection, I honestly don't remember if it flashes or not.
If that were true, then locomotive wheels would spin 160 times as fast as a real loco's too. Of course, they would, IF the n-scale locomotive were really travelling at ~60 non-scale miles per hour. But a locomotive's wheels still turn the same number of turns to travel the length of the (scale) loco. Put another way, the circumference of the wheels observe the same distance scale as the rest of the layout. Time does not scale. An n-scale locomotive, travelling a scale mile per minute (60 scale miles per hour) still takes a real minute to travel a scale mile. Only the mile scales, not the hour/minute. Sometimes we use a "fast clock" to schedule things and mark "time" on our model railroads, but it has nothing to do with scale. We just don't have time to take all day to run a train through its day-long route.
Relax UMTRR.........I was just poking fun since the original post stated the light was flashing too fast. Big Jake has no sense of humor..........he IS correct though.
I just firured it would be obvious.....my guess is the light was flashing about once per second so 160 times that would be 160 times a second, which wouldn't even be flashing any more, it would just be continuously on. No harm, no foul.
You missed my ducking for when people throw things at me for bringing up "scale weight"... That was an interesting scrum...
The FAA specifies various flash units with rates of flash between 30 and 60 flashes per minute (i.e. once every 1 to 2 seconds,) and with illumination periods (per flash) between 100ms and 2/3 of the repetition period. See FAA Advisory Circular No: 150/5345-43J.
The "scale weight" is not the issue, it's whether the "switch" is in the "turnout" position that's the problem....
