RELCO units

QUOTE (morrycook @ 17 Nov 2007, 18:05) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I had Relco units back in the 60s and can't remember having any problems,I have recently got 2 of ebay,one was unused with instructions.There are two ways to wire them up,I have tried to wire them up both ways,but no luck.
One thing that puzzled me was on diagram B shows a DC controller with one wire in & one wire out,,all the DC controllers that I have,have 2 wires in & 2 wires out,which they have to have to work,if someone out there has some relcos working on his layout,could he please tell me how they are wired

Morry Cook.
Hello Morry, mine are wired on the single wire method.The 2 terminals on the left are for the AC connections.On the right side ( on mine it says to track or where the warning lamp is) you will need one of the wires from the output of your controller to one terminal and a connection from the other terminal and the other controller output wire to your track. Hope this solves your problem.
Regards Bizerba

Later produced Relcos were recommended as being wired up via the "B" diagram due to "modifications".

A 0.1uF 50v capacitor is connected across the controller outputs

One wire from the controller goes directly to the track.

The other wire goes to the bottom left terminal.

The other track feed is from the top left terminal.

A 16v ac supply is connected to the two right hand terminals.

It was recommended that an on/off switch was connected in one wire of the ac supply.

It was suggested that a switch can be connected across the left hand terminals to bypass the Relco.

In practice I used a single DPDT switch to switch off and bypass the Relco at the same time

As has been stated do not use with DCC and do not use with a loco that has a DCC decoder in it.

1960s - er no, they came about in the 1970s.

As to the cleaning ability I would not rely on the Relco to clean already dirty track as problems with pitting of wheels can occur. I used them successfully as a way of keeping a clean track clean, so clean your track fully before connecting up the Relco and then you should notice a longer time before you need to manually clean the track again. If the Relco flashes continually as the train passes the same position check the track rather than trusting the Relco to sought it out.