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 Posted - July 19 2016 : 3:59:08 PM
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My name is Sam and I live in St. Louis, MO. I recently inherited a train set from my grandparents that I used to play with when I was little. It hasn't worked in probably 20 years as far as I know. I want to get it working again so my son can enjoy it.
But here's the thing. I don't know anything about wiring and I have no idea where the original malfunction came from. I know that in this most recent move several wires got disconnected but I do not know how it is all supposed to go back together.
I can post pics of the top and underside of the table later on. I do know that it comes with a Tyco Train Power Pack.
In the mean time, if anyone has any good tools to get started wiring one of these bad boys, please direct me that way. I would love to start adding to it - it's a pretty basic setup right now - but I want to just get what I have working again first.
Thanks and I look forward to getting to know you guys!
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Posted - July 19 2016 : 6:30:45 PM
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Welcome to the forum, Sam! If I'm understanding correctly you have an old table with train track mounted to it. In the most basic form there should be two wires coming from your powerpack, each wire leading to one of the rails. Your table may be different however so pictures will definitely help. After all the years of disuse there may be other issues to deal with as well, but it's hard to tell without some pics. 
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Posted - July 19 2016 : 9:26:03 PM
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Hi Sam! If you need some help figuring out how to post
images let me know. I'd really like to see what you've
got going there. Sounds like a heap of fun!
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Posted - July 19 2016 : 10:23:50 PM
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| is this a 4 x 6 layout with TYCO on one of the corners?
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 08:28:11 AM
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quote:is this a 4 x 6 layout with TYCO on one of the corners?
Originally posted by thesiding - July 19 2016 : 10:23:50 PM
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It is 4 x 8. Working on the pics now.
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 08:30:30 AM
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Hi, Sam, welcome to our forum! We love trains here, and Tyco especially, so we'll gladly help you get it back up and running.
Wiring and electricity basics for trains, simplified - You have a power pack. It has two pairs of electrical connections, one is constant 14 volts, the other is variable ( for the throttle ). Most of the power packs for HO the constant voltage is AC voltage for accessory lighting, you do NOT want to hook that up to the track! Can ruin the engine. Read the power terminals on the power pack CAREFULLY. Only hook up variaable / track power to the rails.
There should be a special Terminal track which has screw connections to it. That is where you hook up the wires. Or it could have been soldered, but I'd look for the terminal track first.
One thing you may want to invest in is a small mulit-function voltmeter. You can get a cheap made-in-China variety for $5 at some auto parts stores, usually red or orange in color, in a free-standing cheap tool bin. A multi-meter is an excellent tool to have when troubleshooting electrical problems. It is extremely hard to diagnose problems without a tool to do it. If you try the "hook it up and see if the engine frys" method, that is not a good way to test it. The SIMPLEST way is to get a small 12-14 volt bulb, and hook it across the rails, and power the power pack up QUICKLY to see if it lights. Try the bulb on the terminal connections FIRST, though, to make sure the power supply is working. Then the track, if no light, POWER IT DOWN, there could be a short. DON'T leave power connected when you don't know if there's a short or not! Only BRIEF trys on the throttle to see if power gets to the track. While the power packs do have some protection, it is not good to leave them shorted for any length of time.
So, to recap - test your power back first, make sure it has power, before hooking it up to ANYTHING. if you have a gold-colored Tyco power supply, like a #889, they are prone to failure, so I'd start by testing it with a small light bulb to make sure it works, then proceed to the track. Again, an ohmmeter/voltmeter is almost required to do any sort of electrical testing to discover problems, otherwise you are just guessing and have no idea what is going on. Even a simple 12 volt light bulb across the track is better than nothing. Radio Shack may even still carry the "bug light" troubleshooter tool, it's a simple wand with 2 triple A batteries and a light bulb, and is used for finding shorts. Do NOT power it with the power pack, or you will blow the bulb AND batteries up! Only use it by itself with no other power to the track if you get one of those.
Anyway, pictures are good. We'd like to see your layout anyway. You can always email the pictures to one of our members, and they can post them here, too, if you run into trouble.
Jerry, Train repair tech
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 08:41:52 AM
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Top of train table, showing very basic layout
Some of the various connectors and such. Red and green wires go to power pack but I do not know which is which
More connectors
Underside of table, far left, showing most of the wires that are currently disconnected
Underside of table, left center
Underside of table, right center
Underside of table, far right
A look at various train cars and additional accessories that came with it
And finally, the power pack
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 10:31:49 AM
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If you look at the track on the left-hand side of the second picture there are two clips for power wires. Your red and green wires (which as you say are for the track) need to be hooked up there. The wires are normally attached by pushing down on the metal tab, inserting the wire into the hole, and then releasing pressure on the tab. If the tabs are deformed you may need to solder them on. I can't tell from the picture where the other ends of those two wires go, but they need to be hooked up to the two terminals on the Tyco transformer marked "TRACK ONLY". It shouldn't matter which wire goes where as long as one end of each wire is connected to the track and the other end is connected to the transformer.
The above should be all that is necessary to run trains (keep in mind the track and engine may need cleaning for reliable operation). All the other wiring appears to be powering the accessories, and it looks like it's been set up so that all the accessories can be powered from a single source.
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 10:47:37 AM
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It looks like yo also have a whistling billboard but no steam loco.
Also one operating track which can be used with several of Tyco's cars
You also have the gravity operating coal unloader as well ,hoppers made after 1970 are easy to find
I have SOME of the Tyco parts you may need as I am sure others here do as well
The layout I asked about was a display layout built by Tyco in the seventies as a store display there is a picture in the 1975 1976 catalog
I myself saw it once ata department store when I was a kid
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 12:19:24 PM
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never seen that Polyethalene car b4
I do sees a Tomica American Truck (Peterbuilt) in there too 
the blue frame is a US Steel accessory but missing the crane 
Also Welcome to the club
Edited by - microbusss on July 20 2016 12:20:30 PM
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 2:09:21 PM
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| crane is in the box hopper is LifeLike
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 8:13:31 PM
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Nice little run-around layout, looks like it's in good shape, and the wiring isn't torn loose. As a previous poster said, those red and green wires sticking through the board and going nowhere should go to the terminal track, then the power pack must be hooked up somewhere else, so you need to trace out those red and green wires to see if there is another set hanging loose somewhere. On the underside of that corner is a black terminal block with yellow, green and red wires? going to it. You may have to run the power pack wires from it's terminals to that point, is what I'm thinking. A terminal junction like that is exactly what you would hook a power pack into. Otherwise the layout looks complete and ready to go. You've got a good Tyco base to go forward with.
Jerry, train repair tech
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 8:38:40 PM
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Welcome, Sam! Enjoy your time here...
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 8:51:01 PM
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My cat, Chopsticks, also welcomes you to the Forum. Thanks for your pics. A train layout
doesn't have to be big to be interesting, and yours has quite a lot of interest what with
those double ovals and the trestles. Somebody clearly put some thought and time into
it, and it is great that you are bringing it back.
This stuff, Tyco, in the particular, is not known for its great tracking ability, so at some
point you might want to get your hands on about four or so re--railing tracks so your
stuff stays on the rails most the time. The Tyco locomotives, while cute as heck, are
not known, either, for their durability and strength.
As you look around the post, you will see there is a LOT of help to get things running.
Hope we see more of you! Old finds like this are something a lot of us live for!
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 9:51:18 PM
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Hi guys. Thank you for all the comments. I have a couple updates.
First of all, I looked at the wires a little closer. See the pic below. There are actually two wires coming out of each hole. The one on the bottom has a red and yellow which are for the accessories. The upper one actually has two green wires which if you look in the distance come back up through the board and connect to the track. So that's progress.
Additionally, I had a multimeter so I tested the power pack. It most definitely is working. I need a couple of the little rubber wire connectors in order to take this to the next level, but we are getting somewhere. The question there would be does it matter which wire goes to which terminal? I know the left side is for accessories, but does it matter which order the red and yellow wire go in?
There are still definitely a few loose wires under the table that I need to solve but this was encouraging news tonight.
Edited by - sdaltons on July 20 2016 9:54:19 PM
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Posted - July 20 2016 : 10:10:27 PM
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It looks like the green wires should go to the track terminals on the power pack and the red and yellow wires should go to the accessories terminals.
I noticed a loose blue wire underneath and you seem to have a broken accessories button, there, so you might have to hook things up and test to find what doesn't work. From there, it shouldn't take much to trace a wire back from what doesn't work to what's not hooked up or what's missing.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - July 23 2016 : 12:37:19 AM
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| I am looking forward to seeing more.
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Posted - July 23 2016 : 9:16:50 PM
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quote:Hi guys. Thank you for all the comments. I have a couple updates.
Additionally, I had a multimeter so I tested the power pack. It most definitely is working. The question there would be does it matter which wire goes to which terminal? I know the left side is for accessories, but does it matter which order the red and yellow wire go in?
Originally posted by sdaltons - July 20 2016 : 9:51:18 PM
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Yes and no. One terminal is positive, the other is negative. If you want the engine to go Forward when you have it switched for Forward, they need to be the correct polarity ( if you are looking at an engine on the track, it's facing to the right ( ie, forward it will go right, reverse it will go left )), the right side rail gets positive, and the left side gets negative, or the closest rail to you is positive, the one on the far side of the engine is negative/ground. Otherwise it really doesn't make any different,except when you use a power pack with a directional throttle. Since your Tyco power pack DOES list Forward and Reverse on the switch, yes, the polarity matters. It won't hurt anything to switch it, it just won't match the designations on the power pack.
Jerry, train repair tech
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - July 23 2016 : 9:50:19 PM
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quote:Hi guys. Thank you for all the comments. I have a couple updates.
First of all, I looked at the wires a little closer. See the pic below. There are actually two wires coming out of each hole. The one on the bottom has a red and yellow which are for the accessories. The upper one actually has two green wires which if you look in the distance come back up through the board and connect to the track. So that's progress.
Additionally, I had a multimeter so I tested the power pack. It most definitely is working. I need a couple of the little rubber wire connectors in order to take this to the next level, but we are getting somewhere. The question there would be does it matter which wire goes to which terminal? I know the left side is for accessories, but does it matter which order the red and yellow wire go in?
There are still definitely a few loose wires under the table that I need to solve but this was encouraging news tonight.
Originally posted by sdaltons - July 20 2016 : 9:51:18 PM
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If the red and yellow wire are as you say, for accessories then no it doesn't matter which wire goes where as long as they go on the accessory side of the power pack. Same goes for the track side of the power pack. It doesn't matter which side you put the wires on as long as they are going from the track side of the power pack to the track.
Yardmaster 54
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Posted - July 25 2016 : 11:13:14 PM
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| Hey guys I just wanted to say that I have a few projects going on right now but I appreciate all the comments and will absolutely circle back around here when I'm able to really get into this. You guys have already made me feel much better about the whole thing and like I can actually get this going again. Might be fall before I really dig in.
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