TT Scale. The Ideal Scale.

Can someone tell me what the reasons for the various coils etc between the rails and motor terminals are for?

ConducTTor wrote:Can someone tell me what the reasons for the various coils etc between the rails and motor terminals are for?

Alex,

On what loco? Locos made and sold in Europe have special circuitry (usually coils and capacitors) to curb radio interference, but locos made and sold in USA usually don't have this. Some locos made in other countries for the US market may have these circuits, but many modelers in the US remove them, especially when installing decoders.

Bill in FL

Aha! Perfect answer. I couldn't for the life of me think of what purpose they would serve to the model. Obviously none - to the model :)

Digitrax instructions for installing decoder say --'Some locomotives employ filter capacitors for RFI suppression in the locomotive wiring. These may cause problems with Supersonic decoders and non-decoder analog operation on DCC. This capacitor should be removed.' Digitrax assumes the reader knows what RFI means. Also I've read recommendations elsewhere to remove capacitors and coils because the decoder does the job.

I knew about removing them for decoders which made me wonder why they're there from the beginning. I couldn't come up with a good electrical / motor performance reason so that's why asked. I had no idea it was a "regulation" to reduce radio interference. Thanks for the answers gents.