Hello everyone;
New to the forum, but not to trains. I grew up with an HO layout, eventually went to G, and then landed with Lionel 3 rail O gauge. Looking back a few weeks ago, going to the model train show was probably not in my financial best intrest. :p
So while at the show I picked up a very much new Lionel Minor League Baseball train set. From what I can tell is was issued in 97. All the cars tracks, and power supply were still freshly sealed and unused. The locomotive though had been run. Hard to say for how much, as the locomotive is very clean.
While at the show I saw a Lionel ZW controller..... and what can I say I am a sucker for levers..... So I picked it up too.
Once home I quickly set up a small oval with some extra 027 track I got for dirt cheap, and proceeded to giggle happily.
Now the odd issue I am having. So I searched and watched videos, and I am pretty damn sure I got the polarity of my track correct. Center rail is the hot or "A" rail while the outer rail is the common or "U" rail. When activating the whistle function on my ZW the train would take off with a huge surge of power, but no whistle. I then went to the box, and got the dinky original power supply and hooked it up.... Same issue, push the whistle, and no whistle, also no surge in power...... So got curious and reversed the polarity, and sure enough.... my whistle worked!. I tried this with the ZW and would get a very weak whistle.... I have since rebuilt the ZW with new diodes, and a fast tripping breaker. And back to the original issue.... Whistle only works when the polarity is revered!
So I decided to open up the tender. I noticed that the wires to the whistle had speed nuts, and were held down with scotch tape.... I am not sure if this is OEM Lionel or not. But it made it super easy to switch the wires around in the tender. And now my whistle works with the polarity in the right fashion on the tracks.
So I guess my question is, was this a common issue? Or is it possible some one before me tinkered with the tender? Or do I really have polarity backwards -_-