Power supply hints for adding a turntable.

[grooless]

Hi everyone,

My son has a backman EZ-Track system Ho scale. Originally he had the Thomas the Tank Engine set (simple loop track), then we added 4 sets of points and a pile of other track pieces so we could do a sort of figure 8, and all was good.

Now we have with thanks to Santa a turntable. The piece of paper that comes with the turntable says separate power supplies should be used for the track and turntable, but of course we have only one.

Is it possible to piggy-back both power cables into the one power unit, Or do I have to import another power supply unit?

Currently we can have either working if we swap which cable is plugged in. But there is an intermittant (70% chance or so) chance that once we unplug the turntable and plug the tracks back in we then have no power to the tracks at all.

Please bear in mind I am a complete noobie at this and small words are good

Cheers
GC

[Jerrys HO]

grooless-

What brand of tt do you have. Is it the manual or powered one Bachmann sells or another brand. what type of controller are you using. Are you dc or dcc. If it is the Bachmann motorized one make sure the main line track is in the 4th position. All other tracks have to be either sidings or insulated from the tt.

Jerry

I might add it is better to have a separate power supply to run the tt.

[grooless]

@Jerry,

We have the http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=209 power pack from the Thomas set.

We have the http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3627 motorised turntable from bachmann.

We DO have the track hooked up to the 4th junction as per the piece of paper that came with it.

Problem is we only have one of the power packs atm, and it only has 1 output socket.  So we either plug in the turntable, or we plug in the http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=233 powered re-railer track piece. (From Thomas starter set)

I think we are DC not DCC, but I am not totally sure on the difference - is DCC the programmable whizzy expensive controller? (because we don't have that)

Does the power pack put enough juice out to power both if I splice their cables together ?

Cheers
GC

[Jerrys HO]

g-

You can just cut the plug off of the tt wiring. Leave a little on so if you want to reuse it at sometime you can solder it back.
Now just splice the ends ( I usually solder them ) and the two post coming out the top of the controller attach them to the post. The post are there for hooking up accessories. You will have enough voltage to operate both. You may experience the loco slowing down if you are running one and trying to use the tt at the same time.
Just remember the only powered track that goes to the tt is run to #4 any other tracks should be insulated from the tt. At least that is how it is done using DCC I don't know if the rules are the same for DC. I'm guessing it is.

Jerry