Phasing Lionel Train Transformers - Step By Step

Hello again, this is Mike with Toy Train Tips and Tricks. Today we are looking at a technique that just about every O-Gage hobbyist should know, but many don't. But it's a very simple technique and it is very, very useful. And what that is, is to phase your transformers. Now, first of all, what is phasing and why is it important? Well, first of all, I'm not an electrician, so I'm oversimplifying the process here, but AC current doesn't, you know, you think about traveling like water through a pipe from one direction to another in a straight line and back. AC power actually changes direction. And in fact, in the United States, we talk about 60-cycle current. That means 60 times a second the AC power is switching directions. When things are in phase, it means that they are all switching directions at the same time in perfect harmony, if you will. And so they work together. And so with this, you can use multiple transformers on the same circuit, on the same layout. It simplifies the wiring and it allows you to increase the number, the amount of power that you have for the layout, less expensively than buying one huge transformer like a ZW with multiple taps. You can buy smaller, cheaper transformers, get the same effect. All you have to do is phase the transformers. Now, there's two basic ways to do this. There's a low-tech way and there's the digital meter way. Well, it doesn't have to be a digital meter, but the voltmeter way. And I'm going to show you both of them. So when you're phasing, if you have, you can go old and new. You can phase transformers at different manufacturers, different wattages. Again, here we have a newer CW80 by Lionel. This particular one was probably late 1990s. And here we have a late 60s, early 1970s Lionel starter set one. So if you have a more modern one, use that. You have to pick one of your transformers to be the master, to be the one that all of the others are phased with. And if you have a modern one, it's a good choice to start with. Well, one, it's already marked. They intend this to be the common terminal and this to be the hot. The other thing that makes a modern one more worthwhile is the plug itself. One side has the fat plate, so it only plugs in one way. So you can't turn it around and get the opposite side. So you plug that in the only way that it will go. And I'm going to turn the power on, on my CW. There we go. Okay. So I've already taken this black wire to the common side of the CW. And on this transformer, oops, so you can get that vibration out there. Okay. On this transformer, nothing is marked, um, as far as which one is supposed to be common, which one is supposed to be hot. I'm going to pick this side to be my common and with the power off, with power off, everything unplugged, I'm going to attach this ground to what I intend to be the ground on this side. Okay. So now let's start with the low-tech method. And with my power on, I'm going to take where'd my wire go? Oh, okay. I have this alligator clip here on the hot side of my CW80. And I'm going to take the other side and put the power on about halfway here and about halfway there. After I plug this in, I'm going to touch the alligator clip to this. If I get a big spark, they are out of phase and I will turn my plug around and check it again. And if there's no spark, they are in phase. So I'm going to plug it in one way. And that hum is the 60 cycles. That is that 60, um, that's the case vibrating as the, as the transformer changes, as the voltage changes direction there. If I put it in different spots, they either get the sound or not. Okay. So ignore that. I'm going to turn both of them on about halfway. And here we go. If I get a spark, a little spark, not bad. Okay. Well, let's see what a big one can look like. I'm going to turn the plug around, turn the plug around and let's see if I get a big spark this time. There. Okay. That, and you also see this goes off as an overload. That is out of phase. Okay. All right. So I'm plugging it again. And so what I would do is I had my plug plugged in this way. Notice there's no fat blade on here. I can plug it either way, but I add this little adapter and I plug it in. And now I know when I plug it in, it's always going to be the same way and it's going to be phased. But let's show you the other way real quick. And with that, I don't need the power on. I do need them plugged in. And I'm going to take my volt meter and I'm going to set it. In this case, it'll read up to 200 volts where obviously we're not going to be anywhere close to that. And with the power off, I'm going to put one terminal on the hot side. And you see, even with it turned off, I'm getting some flow here. Okay. 24.7 volts with the power off. That's bad. That tells me that we're out of phase. Let's turn it around. So with no power at all, I had 24.7 volts. Okay. Let's do the same thing with the plug turned around. 6.9. That's more like it. Okay. So if you get a reading that is twice or more the value of the transformers, you know, you are out of phase. So again, turning it that way at 6.9 volts, even with the power off, there's still some flowing. Turn it around. And again, this is going to be crazy. This is going to be 20 something. There. Almost 24 volts. Okay. So you see that that is wrong. And that, that's getting annoying. Okay. And that is how you do it. The two different methods. You can either look for the big spark and you know that is wrong, or you can look for the big voltage and you know that is wrong. So what this does for me on the layout is I can run one power pack to track power. I can run one power pack to accessories and I can, you can add an infinite number of these. As long as your household current can handle the flow, you can add an infinite number of transformers. As long as they are all phased together and phase them all back to your one master. So make sure that everything matches. Now, once you're on the layout, you can disconnect these. You don't have to have this directly wired to this. It can be indirect. In other words, if you're each ground terminal is going to the same common bus, that works. But best practice, just to make sure you can still run an additional wire from common to just to make sure everything is all still in phase. So if you're running multiple loops and a locomotive goes from one loop to the other, the transformers are in phase, not a problem. If they're out of phase, you could fry some electronics. You could have however many transformers you need to run however many loops, how many accessories. As long as they're all in phase, you can do it that way. So what some modelers will do is that they will buy a massive transformer like a Lionel ZW that has many outputs to run their different loops and different accessories. Those transformers are nice, but they're also very pricey. You could spend $250, $300 depending on condition. Whereas if all you need is this to run your switches, you can buy this at a show for $5. This is about $75, $80. You can buy something like a Marx 1859, which is 150 watts for under $50. So compared to the cost of a ZW, buying lots of smaller transformers to run the different accessories is a whole lot cheaper. And all you have to do is phase everything. So I hope you liked the video. Like it, share it, subscribe, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and we'll see you next time here on Toy Train Tips and Tricks. Happy railroading!