[trainbuffjr]

I am currently trying to convert my Bachmann Annie to battery power using the Aristo-Craft T.E. I saw an article on using the 'Light' and 'Sound' plugs on the tender to supply power to the engine, but the plugs look like 20 guage wire and the Aristo Te wire is much larger. Am I looking at this wrong? Does anyone know how this is done or is there another way to do this? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Aaron

 

[Dan Pierce]

The Aristocraft has large wire as it is capable of 10 amps if using the 27mhz trackside version. On board units are 3 amp, 5 amp peak.

Your bachman engine under load and with smoke/lights on will hardly draw 1 amp, starter sets have only a 1/2 amp power supply.

So, large wire is not needed for the Annie, however you should protect the wiring with a fuse/circuit breaker that is in the 2-3 amp range.

 

[Paul Norton]

The heavy wiring on the 27 MHz Train Engineer is the INPUT wiring and was designed to power an entire garden railway. If you have a battery pack with the same connector, you could leave it in place although it takes up a lot of room even coiled and wrapped.

If you are using a switch to toggle the battery pack between its charger and the receiver, the heavy wires could be cut and soldered to the center terminals of a switch. Or if a larger switch with screw terminals is used, number 6 loop connectors could be crimped on the shortened wires.

The output wires from the screw terminals of the receiver do not have to be that heavy a gauge to run an Annie. The rear light plug wiring is heavy enough. Most of the other wiring in this locomotive is the same gauge.

In my conversion the rear light plug wiring was used to power the locomotive. As I had used the smaller 75 MHz receiver, the Bachmann sound board, speaker and plug were left in place.

The other two shorter plugs are for charging the battery packs.