Lionel Trains" #6019 remote uncoupling controller for O27 track uses four wires to activate these functions. These are not simple push buttons, but a complex contact-stacking system to send the proper circuit to the proper rail. But these buttons are often found broken today - or missing entirely - or the wire insulation has become old and brittle, and no longer functions properly. These buttons also take up a lot of real estate on a control panel.
But what if this large two-button, four-wire apparatus could be replaced by a simple push button - like a doorbell button or other simple button? Can you still have universal operation?
Yes, you can - but with one caveat. You will lose the ability to uncouple older electromagnetic couplers on one side of the track section. However, most of us don’t have many of these cars - if we have any at all - AND we can still uncouple one side of the car AND have full operating functions for operating cars and all other magnetic couplers, so it seems to me that the tradeoff is worth it.
The key to this system is to make one control rail - the one that is NOT electrically tied to the center magnet - PERMANENTLY common. This control rail (or two on the UCS sections) will always be electrically connected to the outside rails. The other control rail, which is tied to the center magnet, will be either on or off. When ON, a standard coupler or plunger car over the center magnet will activate or uncouple accordingly. An electromagnetic coupler will pick up the HOT from the control rail through the sliding shoe, uncouple, and complete the electrical circuit through the truck to the COMMON on the outside rail. A shoe-operated car will pick up the HOT from the HOT rail through the pickup shoe, travel through the activating motor or solenoid of the car, and find the COMMON through the opposite shoe through the COMMON control rail.
In other words, you no longer need to know which button to press for which function. With the car positioned on the track, just press the button and the car will do whatever it is supposed to do!
When the button is released, only the COMMON side of the circuit is active, so neither the magnet nor anything else is powered through the track.
Got the concept? Let’s do the wiring!
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Toy Train Tips And Tricks is a channel devoted to the operation, repair, history, and collecting of classic 3-rail O and O27 gauge trains made by Lionel, Marx, K-Line, Menards, and other manufacturers.
The easiest wiring method for Lionel operating and uncoupling tracks.
On this episode of Toy Train Tips and Tricks.
Hello again, this is Mike with Toy Train Tips and Tricks.
And before we get started, please excuse any background noises you might hear in this video.
I am filming under less than ideal circumstances for this episode,
my normal quiet time in the house.
Well, it just couldn't happen this week thanks to snow snorms and other things.
So I'm going to try to cover up the background noise with maybe some music or something.
But, you know, if you hear the occasional dog bark or kids screaming or,
you know, laundry running or whatever, please excuse that.
And one of my earliest videos about two years ago now
was a comprehensive overview of Lionel's various uncoupling and operating track sections,
such as the RCS, the UCS, the 6019 and so on.
And while that video provides great historical information
and wiring diagrams to repair these sections,
it's very long, it's unscripted, generally poor quality,
and hopefully I've improved at least a little bit over the past two years.
So anyway, this video is an update to that with a greatly simplified wiring scheme
for the UCS and 6019 sections.
Instead of the four wires that are usually needed,
this method requires only a short jumper wire at the track section
and a single control wire going to a push button
while still enabling both uncoupling and unloading functions.
Now, the advantage that the UCS or universal control section for regular O-track
and its 027 companion, the 6019 have over the regular single magnet uncoupling sections
is that they are in fact universal.
They can uncouple modern magnetic couplers,
they can uncouple older electromagnetic knuckle and even pre-warp box couplers,
they can operate shoe activated cars such as the operating milk cars,
the early coal and log dump cars,
and they can operate the plunger activated action cars such as mail cars,
operating box cars, and later plastic dump cars as well.
The key to this multifunctional operation is the two control rails,
or in the case of the UCS, two on each side,
and their ability to change their orientation in the electrical circuit.
When both control rails are hot, like the center rail,
the magnet activates and older shoe operated couplers uncouple.
When one rail is hot and the other is common, like the outside rails,
the pickup shoes of operating cars have a complete circuit to activate their various mechanisms.
The original two-button controller uses four wires to activate these functions.
These are not simple push buttons, but a very complex contact stacking system
that's used to send the proper circuit to the proper rail.
But these buttons are often found broken today or missing entirely,
or the wire installation has become old and brittle,
and no longer functions causing short circuits.
These buttons also take up a lot of real estate on a control panel.
But what if this large two-button four-wire apparatus could be replaced by
a simple push button like a doorbell or another simple push button?
Can you still have universal operation?
Yes, you can, but with one caveat.
You will lose the ability to uncouple the older electromagnetic couplers
on one side of the track section.
However, most of us don't have very many of these cars, if we have any at all.
And we can still uncouple these cars on one side
and have full operating sections for all the other operating cars and other magnetic couplers.
So to me, it seems like the trade-off is worth it.
The key to this system is to make one control rail, or one pair of control rails,
one that is not electrically tied to the center magnet, to make this permanently common.
This control rail, or pair of control rails,
will always be electrically connected to the outside rails.
The other control rail, which is tied to the center magnet, will either be on or off.
When on, a standard coupler or plunger car over the center magnet will activate
or uncouple accordingly.
An electromagnetic coupler will pick up the hot from the control rail
through the sliding shoe, it'll uncouple,
complete the electrical circuit through the truck to the common on the outside rail,
and it will uncouple.
A shoe-operated car will pick up the hot from the hot rail through the pickup shoe,
travel through the activating motor or the solenoid of the car,
and then find the common through the opposite shoe through the common control rail.
In other words, you no longer need to know which button to press for which function.
With the car positioned on the track, just press the button
and the car will do whatever it is that it's supposed to do.
When the button is released, only the common side of the circuit is active,
so neither the magnet nor anything else is powered through the track,
at least the control rails.
So, if you've got the concept, let's do the wiring.
Starting with the 6019, let's turn the track over.
Now, let's find the control rail that is not connected to the center magnet.
This one is.
Here's the control rail, and you see it's connected to the center magnet.
Here's the other control rail.
It is not wired to the center magnet.
We are going to run a short jumper wire from here
to any ground connection, any common connection that we can find,
which in this case, we are going to use this one
that is used for the opposite side of the magnet.
We're going to run a short wire from here to here.
All right, so with our jumper wire attached here,
we don't have to worry about the common side anymore.
For the hot side, I run my wire through the little slot,
and this connection right here is where the control rail
connects along with the center magnet.
This original factory connection has been broken,
so I'm going to solder it back in place at the same time.
So this wire and this wire to this connection right here.
Now, with this connection made, the other end of this wire
is going to go to one end of our push button.
Now, for my regular control panels, I'm going to use smaller buttons.
For our sake, I'm going to use this doorbell button
because of the screw connectors.
Doesn't matter which end you connect to, just pick one.
The other side of the button connects to your hot power source,
whether that's variable track power or, my preference, constant accessory voltage.
Constant voltage means you don't have to worry about
how fast your train is going when you're uncoupling or unloading.
But, if you are using a secondary transformer for your accessory power,
make sure that it is phased with your track power supply
and make sure that it's tied into your common bus wiring.
Make the connection and turn on the power.
Push the button and...
Ta-da!
It uncouples.
Or it unloads.
Or it uncouples.
Or it unloads.
The UCS section is wired differently.
In addition to having two control rails on each side
and having screw terminals instead of the pre-attached wiring
and note the terminals are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4.
Don't know if you can see that on the camera.
The connections under the track are very different as well.
First, run a jumper wire between the two outside screw terminals
or solder a wire underneath between these two points.
Normally on the UCS, no soldering is required because of the screw terminals.
In my case, because of this broken screw,
I will have to make a little solder connection.
Now, connect your hot power wire to terminal number 3
and run the opposite side of this wire to one side of your push button as before.
Now, the big difference.
The center magnet on the UCS section is already permanently wired to the center rail.
As soon as you turn on track power, one side of the magnet is already active.
This means that you cannot, using the single button method,
you cannot operate the UCS section with constant voltage.
Therefore, the opposite side of the push button should connect back to terminal number 2
on the UCS track section and operate on track power.
As long as you have track power, the track section will operate.
So, if you want to hear me drone on and on about the history of Lionel's various uncoupling sections,
check out my old video.
But if you want a simpler method of wiring these track sections, give this method a try.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful,
and if so, please like it, share it, leave a comment or two, and tell your friends and neighbors.
Above all, keep the trains running, and we'll see you next time on Toy Train Tips and Tricks.
