![]() Gilbert American Flyer often included a No 690 track terminal with these lighted accessories to enable the user to avoid long wire runs to parts of the layout away from the transformer. Normally accessories such as street lights, lighted towers, lighted stations, and lighted bridges would be expected to be provided with 15 VAC to power the light bulbs. There are special instruction sheet sections for this. When using these locomotive and power supplies, the wiring for the action cars becomes more difficult as it is necessary to supply the DC power to the track to operate the locomotive and AC power to the activation section and the Base Post side of the track to enable operation of the action car. Careful planning for the expected operation of the trains containing these cars and the direction of travel or dumping is necessary for the correct operation of the units.įor a short time in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s Gilbert American Flyer produced locomotives that were powered by direct current or DC motors. This often limits the direction of travel for an action car such as the Mail Pick-up Car, or the dumping direction for one of the log, or coal dump cars. The Base Post must be connected to the rail in contact with the metal wheels and the activation section must have the contact bar on the side of the track away from the Base Post side. Since the action cars use one of the rails as the power return or neutral, the orientation of the action car metal wheels and the action car activation track is critical to enable the operation of the car. Usually there would be a note included in the box to explain the change. Due to these shortages Gilbert would substitute a non standard color for the standard one. There were shortages for some of the colors immediately after World War II and during the Korean War. White, Black, Yellow, Green, Red and Orange are the most commonly used colors for the wiring and are used according to the standards above. Yellow and Black are the 15 volt power and the other colors activate various functions. Similar logic applies for the accessories. Again since Gilbert engineers designed and the factory built the motors and solenoid used for the operating accessories, they could adjust the designs to operate correctly with this standard.Īll of the American Flyer transformers were designed to take the incoming 120 VAC power line voltage and reduce it to the 15 VAC fixed and 7 to 15 VAC variable voltages to operate the American Flyer trains and accessories. Standard Number 2: All lighted accessories and operating accessories must operate on the 15 volt fixed output from the transformers. Since Gilbert engineers designed and the factory built the motors and solenoids used for the locomotives and action cars, they could adjust the designs to operate correctly with this standard. Standard Number 1: All locomotives, lighted cars and action cars must operate on the 7 to 15 volt variable output from the transformers. WHITE AND BLUE BLOCKS FLYER SERIESTo do this they set up a series of standard ways of powering and connecting the American Flyer trains and accessories. Part of the challenge to Gilbert engineers of providing American Flyer electric trains for the public was to set up a wiring system that would enable the kids and non technical adults to easily and successfully set up the trains and accessories. WHITE AND BLUE BLOCKS FLYER MANUALSThis page includes links to all of the American Flyer Wiring instructions manuals and bulletins for owning and operating American Flyer accessories, trains, and track components. ![]()
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