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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Power Functions -> 9V conversions underway


Yikes, I did not realize how blurry and terrible that camera phone pic was going to be until I downloaded it.  Oh well.

As previously hinted, I've started converting some of my trains over to the old 9V system, my newest custom passenger train being the first to receive the transplant.  I was very happy to be using modern Power Functions components in moderately stealthy ways in my trains, and I really enjoyed the ability to command all of them at once from a single controller.  However, some other realities of the system have been a drag.  Even with engines that have easy, external power button triggers, to just get a couple of default trains running around my two loops for a little update video, I need to crawl under my tables & physically turn each on.  Then I crawl back out & go through the little dance of setting the right controller channel & setting the desired speed.  It gets old after awhile.

Since I invested so much money up front into laying all electrified rail for my standard-gauge layouts, it's time for me to actually use it.  I don't know if I'll convert every engine to 9V over time, but likely most of them will get the treatment. This way I'll end up actually running the trains more frequently, thanks to the convenience of it, which you all will get to see & enjoy.  It'll also make the building of new custom trains much easier, and that's something I'm very much looking forward to!

2 comments:

  1. Where do you get those sets???

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  2. I would attempt to make this conversion to all of my trains, but the cost of all the necessary 9V stuff (motor, regulator, transformer, track, wiring clips) is quite high.

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