Hey everyone,

I'm curious to get your opinions: for street lamps and related accessories, what voltage AC would you recommend using? I ask as I've always used 16V without thinking much as that is the back of a Marklin transformer and what they use for all their solenoid accessories, but I've recently encountered a few things such as a roco uncoupler requiring 12 V and light bulbs that were good for 18 V (presumably due to digital current?)

Anyways, any advice on an ideal voltage if you were going to run one accessory circuit around your layout?

Cheers,
-John

John,

I think in terms of "ideal" voltage, it's going to depend on what you're running. If it's all Marklin gear, 16v will probably be it. If there is a lot of other stuff, 12v may be more common. Using the "red output" method you may compromise and run at something like 14v, as long as the 16v accessories are still performing to your satisfaction (especially turnout motors, signals and uncouples). I am surprised the thread hasn't gotten more responses, but I would be willing to be the most common accessory voltage is going to be 16v.

-Brandon

I use a TITAN brand 100VA trafo for lighting purposes.
It has two outputs; 16Vac and 14Vac. I use the 14V one. Hopefully I will get longer life for my lightbulps that way...