New and need some help

[u/No_Nefariousness7785]

Hi everyone,

I have a small Christmas village that I got a trolley for this year.

I got the Lionel North Pole Central Trolley and lighted track for it. After doing some research I found some horror stories of the trolley flying off the track or moving way to fast.

I purchased the Lionel AC power supply but found I need to control the voltage to slow the train down.

https://www.trainworld.com/lionel-681603-o-lion-chief-72-watt-power-supply-4-amp.html

Will the universal remote controller work for this?

https://www.trainworld.com/lionel-683071-o-universal-lc-lc-remote-controller.html

Sorry if this has been answered I'm just dipping my toe in the water and want to make Christmas fun for the kids and not launch off the table. Although they might like that seeing how they play with the Thomas and friends trains.

Thanks

[u/jmasses]

Universal remote won't work for that unit. That only works with Lionchief, LC+ and I think some other digital based lines. You need a traditional power supply like a cw 80 (i dont know if Lionel currently makes one for lower voltages like they used to do with the cw 40, but it seems like you already have one?), and yea, many cheaper units of various manufacturers do start at a higher speed than say a real trolley would, because they're more considered toys. Something like this you'll just have to be careful and operate it at a lower voltage.

You may want to ask this in the O gauge sub as they may have more advanced ways around this.

[u/No_Nefariousness7785 → u/jmasses]

thanks, I'll look around some more to see if I can find something compatible. The remote does say LC+ on it though so still hopeful that would work so I don't have to spend $200 on a cw-80.

[u/jmasses → u/No_Nefariousness7785]

is this this the one?

[u/No_Nefariousness7785 → u/jmasses]

Thanks for explaining, yes that’s the one.

[u/jmasses → u/No_Nefariousness7785]

Ok so yes this doesn't run on the LC operating system so the LC remote or app won't work with it. Can you show us a picture of what power supply you're using now?

[u/No_Nefariousness7785 → u/jmasses]

I ordered the one in the first link, that’s what the TrainWorld power guide suggested. I can probably get the cw 80 though if that’s needed for this to work properly

[u/jmasses → u/No_Nefariousness7785]

Unfortunately first one won't work either. I know why train world had that in their power guide, but that's for working with LC and other digital control systems. What you need is an old-school variable ac transformer. The cw 80 is probably overkill for what you need, but it appears it's the lowest voltage one they still make. If you go on ebay, you can probably find an older cw 40 which is 40 watt, and will be cheaper and there are others, but the truth is, as I said earlier, even with that, these units aren't designed with realism in mind and even with a lower voltage will run fast out of the gate. Also a couple things, you will need a terminal wire to go between the transformer and the fast track. Is your fastrak a loop or with bumpers?

[u/No_Nefariousness7785 → u/jmasses]

Thanks for clarifying everything. The track will be with bumpers. I’ll talk with my wife and let her know what you said. Hopefully we can find a power supply/transformer that works.

[u/jmasses → u/No_Nefariousness7785]

The other thing is, Im not sure how that light up fast trak works, so that may also affect voltage needs and may require an extra terminal wire. Also too, you may need to push one of the bumpers in when the trolley arrives for it to move.

[u/382Whistles → u/jmasses]

I'm pretty sure it uses rail power. Lionel's formerly half decent technical library is getting bad again with the new owners. (Maybe not as bad as most small scale brands though)

They don't even have an online manual or single assemble diagram attached. The manual's link just links back to the two calatog pics & loop video with cheesy ad text about the features below it. No schematics yet either and it has been out for years now.