Train Power - When DC is not Direct Current
This is the second (or third if you count the previous diversion into history) in a continuing series of posts on powering model trains. The first installment covered some basics of DC motor design, and if you haven’t read it, it’s worth at least a skim before reading today’s post, since it provides a lot of background information (or read the DC Train Motors page, which has been updated considerably from the original material). Today we’ll get into how modern “DC” power packs aren’t really DC, and what aspects of DC motor behavior make that a good thing.
Most modern “DC” power packs don’t really put out DC in the sense of a fixed voltage for a given throttle position. The reason for this is that DC motors don’t really run very well at slow speeds. They work best at a fairly high rotational speed. In the early days hobbyists had to be content with models that went from “stop” to “rather quick” with no intermediate speed. This is often referred to as a “jack rabbit start”, and it’s hardly prototypical. Real locomotives weigh several hundred tons. Nothing that heavy accelerates quickly, and if it’s pulling a train that can weigh upwards of 10,000 tons it’s even slower to get up to speed.
Passenger trains (multiple unit type) tend to weigh less, and often have more and distributed power so they can accelerate faster. But there are limits to that, as passengers tend to object to being hurled backwards. And “weigh less” still means that a train will weigh 100 tons or more without passengers, and a full load of those can easily add 50 tons. That’s a lot to accelerate quickly.
I’ll get into the details below, but the short version is that modelers discovered that “pulsing”, or varying the power in a repeating manner, allowed a train to start more gently. This wasn’t without its problems, and various different approaches were tried over the years, although the earliest technique proved quite effective and continued in use for over twenty-five years. In fact many systems today use a technique known in the 1950s, but not considered “the best” at the time. It’s still a compromise, but a popular one. Today all but entry-level DC power packs produce pulsed power in some form, and it’s so commonplace that most don’t even mention it. There are exceptions, of course.
Read More...
Most modern “DC” power packs don’t really put out DC in the sense of a fixed voltage for a given throttle position. The reason for this is that DC motors don’t really run very well at slow speeds. They work best at a fairly high rotational speed. In the early days hobbyists had to be content with models that went from “stop” to “rather quick” with no intermediate speed. This is often referred to as a “jack rabbit start”, and it’s hardly prototypical. Real locomotives weigh several hundred tons. Nothing that heavy accelerates quickly, and if it’s pulling a train that can weigh upwards of 10,000 tons it’s even slower to get up to speed.
Passenger trains (multiple unit type) tend to weigh less, and often have more and distributed power so they can accelerate faster. But there are limits to that, as passengers tend to object to being hurled backwards. And “weigh less” still means that a train will weigh 100 tons or more without passengers, and a full load of those can easily add 50 tons. That’s a lot to accelerate quickly.
I’ll get into the details below, but the short version is that modelers discovered that “pulsing”, or varying the power in a repeating manner, allowed a train to start more gently. This wasn’t without its problems, and various different approaches were tried over the years, although the earliest technique proved quite effective and continued in use for over twenty-five years. In fact many systems today use a technique known in the 1950s, but not considered “the best” at the time. It’s still a compromise, but a popular one. Today all but entry-level DC power packs produce pulsed power in some form, and it’s so commonplace that most don’t even mention it. There are exceptions, of course.
Read More...
January 2014 Status
04 February 2014 22:12 Filed in: Administrivia,Monthly Status
January was a month spent on the mysteries of model train motors and the DC power supplies that drive them. There’s really not a whole lot to say beyond that. Work on the layout remains stalled, but at least I’m keeping myself interested in some aspect of the hobby. And hopefully this will blow out the mental cobwebs and let me get back to work with renewed excitement in a bit.
And motors are quite interesting things to study when you get right down to it. I’d spent some time on them a year ago when I was reviewing DCC decoders in preparation for converting the bulk of my trains over to DCC (another project on hold). But I realized partway through that effort that I knew less than I though I did, so I took some time off to work on other things before returning to the topic, which I did at the end of December.
This time, I decided to start with DC, rather than DCC, and clarify my understanding of how the motors worked in a traditional model railroad. Once I think I have that well grasped, I’ll return to looking at DCC decoders and what they do with motors.
At the very end of December I also added the new Tomix model of the E7 Shinkansen to my preorder list; the first train I’ll have bought in over six months, and only my second Tomix model (aside from a freight engine and some cars). This train is designed for slower “high speed” operation in a mountainous region, and thus has less of the “duck bill” look then other new Shinkansen (although it still has some of that), which also makes it appealing to me. I’ve never been a fan of that look, although it at least has the benefit of being done for a functional reason (reducing shockwave noise when exiting tunnels), rather than being stylistic.
Read More...
And motors are quite interesting things to study when you get right down to it. I’d spent some time on them a year ago when I was reviewing DCC decoders in preparation for converting the bulk of my trains over to DCC (another project on hold). But I realized partway through that effort that I knew less than I though I did, so I took some time off to work on other things before returning to the topic, which I did at the end of December.
This time, I decided to start with DC, rather than DCC, and clarify my understanding of how the motors worked in a traditional model railroad. Once I think I have that well grasped, I’ll return to looking at DCC decoders and what they do with motors.
At the very end of December I also added the new Tomix model of the E7 Shinkansen to my preorder list; the first train I’ll have bought in over six months, and only my second Tomix model (aside from a freight engine and some cars). This train is designed for slower “high speed” operation in a mountainous region, and thus has less of the “duck bill” look then other new Shinkansen (although it still has some of that), which also makes it appealing to me. I’ve never been a fan of that look, although it at least has the benefit of being done for a functional reason (reducing shockwave noise when exiting tunnels), rather than being stylistic.
Read More...
A Short History of Transistor Throttles
My interest in the design of transistor-based DC throttles (aka Power Packs) for model railroading ended up causing me to pick up the DVD set of Model Railroader back issues (henceforth identified as MR). While US$200 seems like a lot, I think it was well worth it, if only to satisfy my curiosity. And it works out to less than US$0.30 per issue, so in a sense it’s a bargain. I also dug up a copy of Peter Thorne’s 1974 book Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders (mine is the third edition of 1975), which has a number of throttle circuits, including one using an SCR. This book can go for rather high prices online, but I found mine at a train show last week for the cover price of US$3.50; quite the bargain.
Early-on electric model trains were run with car batteries (some early ones used AC motors with AC from a transformer instead), first apparently at 6 volts but by the 1930’s DC motors were apparently designed for 12 volts even before cars switched to the larger batteries, requiring two batteries placed in series (per MR August 1934 article on the use of DC power). DC at 12 volts was more than enough to run small motors, and early throttles were little more than a variable resistor (rheostat) to reduce voltage for slower speeds, and a Dual-Pole, Dual-Throw (DPDT) switch to reverse polarity for direction control. Often a “knife” switch would be used for the reverser, which could be left in a central “off” position to disconnect the throttle from the track.
But modelers weren’t very satisfied with these. DC didn’t allow for smooth low-speed operation, and “jackrabbit” starts with a minimum speed over 10 or even 20 scale miles per hour (16 - 32 kph) made for poor switching operations. Plus, modelers wanted to model the behavior of real trains, with simulated momentum and realistic braking action.
This led to designs for more sophisticated “throttles” and ever more complex designs as electronics technology improved. Some of the results did a fairly good job of replicating the real behavior of trains, right down to simulating the performance of air-brake systems similar to the one in the diagram at the top of this post. It’s possible some of this took place before the transistor was introduced; vacuum tubes could have been used for similar things. However, nobody appears to have published their experiences with these, so it seem likely that little or nothing was done until the transistor came along.
The development of the low-cost transistor in the late 1950’s made more complex throttles accessible to a hobbyist with a relatively minor amount of electronics skill and for a reasonable price, and the next decade was a time of rapid change, with evolution continuing into the 1970’s. By 1980, interests had shifted towards running multiple trains using command control systems (the precursors of DCC), although the roots of those went back further. And even in 1980 you could still buy rheostat throttles, although they were definitely behind the times by then. None of these technologies fully displaced the others. The transistor has in fact soldiered on into the era of digital controls, and you can still buy transistor throttles today that aren’t too different in principle from those designs of a half-century ago.
Read More...
Early-on electric model trains were run with car batteries (some early ones used AC motors with AC from a transformer instead), first apparently at 6 volts but by the 1930’s DC motors were apparently designed for 12 volts even before cars switched to the larger batteries, requiring two batteries placed in series (per MR August 1934 article on the use of DC power). DC at 12 volts was more than enough to run small motors, and early throttles were little more than a variable resistor (rheostat) to reduce voltage for slower speeds, and a Dual-Pole, Dual-Throw (DPDT) switch to reverse polarity for direction control. Often a “knife” switch would be used for the reverser, which could be left in a central “off” position to disconnect the throttle from the track.
But modelers weren’t very satisfied with these. DC didn’t allow for smooth low-speed operation, and “jackrabbit” starts with a minimum speed over 10 or even 20 scale miles per hour (16 - 32 kph) made for poor switching operations. Plus, modelers wanted to model the behavior of real trains, with simulated momentum and realistic braking action.
This led to designs for more sophisticated “throttles” and ever more complex designs as electronics technology improved. Some of the results did a fairly good job of replicating the real behavior of trains, right down to simulating the performance of air-brake systems similar to the one in the diagram at the top of this post. It’s possible some of this took place before the transistor was introduced; vacuum tubes could have been used for similar things. However, nobody appears to have published their experiences with these, so it seem likely that little or nothing was done until the transistor came along.
The development of the low-cost transistor in the late 1950’s made more complex throttles accessible to a hobbyist with a relatively minor amount of electronics skill and for a reasonable price, and the next decade was a time of rapid change, with evolution continuing into the 1970’s. By 1980, interests had shifted towards running multiple trains using command control systems (the precursors of DCC), although the roots of those went back further. And even in 1980 you could still buy rheostat throttles, although they were definitely behind the times by then. None of these technologies fully displaced the others. The transistor has in fact soldiered on into the era of digital controls, and you can still buy transistor throttles today that aren’t too different in principle from those designs of a half-century ago.
Read More...
