A wide variety of illuminated accessories, such as lamp posts, station platforms, floodlights, beacons, and other realistic pieces of model railroad equipment, is available. The voltage required by various illuminated accessories depends upon the lamps used. With few exceptions it is generally 12-14 volts.
Illuminated accessories should be connected directly to the transformer whenever possible. After you have found what voltage is required, select the pair of binding posts which give nearest to the required voltage and connect them to the binding posts or contact clips of the accessory.
In the event you have several voltage it is advisable to use the all of them, wiring them together in "parallel" as shown in Figure 47. Two main feeders go to the transformer posts and individual wires go from these feeders to the accessories. In this way unnecessary wiring is eliminated.
Remember that if two or more 14-volt accessories are wired together in "parallel", they must still be connected to the 14-volt posts on the transformer and not to posts which give the total of the voltages required by individual accessories.
When illuminated accessories are connected to binding posts whose voltage is not "fixed" but is controlled by dials, such as in transformers VW or ZW, take care not to turn the voltage control to a point greater than specified for the accessories, or the lamps will be quickly burned out. As a general rule the life of the lamps will be greatly extended i+ they are operated a little below their rated voltage.
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