I am building a ceiling track. Total of 98 feet. What size transformer would be best? And how far apart should feeders be? Train will be short to start with. A loco and perhaps 6 cars.
Welcome to TrainBoard! What type of equipment are you going to operate, as far as it being O scale two rail, or three rail/hi-rail/tinplate?
Hi-rail or tinplate is reference to the old Lionel standard style three rail track. "Hi-rail" when compared to more scale type track and tinplate their common old style of metal sectional track. Their newer stuff is known as "Fastrack" and is more scale in appearance with plastic roadbed. There will be no accessories? Just the train itself? I'm not certain how many power supplies they presently sell new. Using that many feet of track, I just would not be comfortable suggesting their CW80, even with a massive number of drops. I well remember using their old standard #1033 90 watt and how it just didn't have enough zip, even with many drops. And that was a run about 1/3 of what you have in mind.
So maybe 100-150 watts? What about two transformer on the same track? Equally spaced and 80 watts each?
Increasing sizes of transformers are such as the LW, at 125 Watts; TW at 175 Watts and the KW at 190 Watts. You can go even larger... As many feet as proposed, and the number of drops I'd place, no more than six feet apart, I'd really lean toward at least a TW. A large size will never be too much. I'd not try the two small transformers. Wired properly there is no problem. It's just that you would still have a long run for even a CW80 and many drops. But, what type of engine and is is equipped with Lionel's control system?
