TT Scale. The Ideal Scale.

i just bought a tillig tt starter set, but it does not come with transformer. the add for the set says 110 volt transformer needed. can i use a 120 mrc or will that destroy the engine. i bought the set from euro train hobby and the woman i talked to said they dont carry them.?

jmass, I use an MRC Teck4 280 and have never had issues. The only thing that matters in a power supply is the voltage. The MRC I have gives operating voltage as 16 volts but in reality it's right at 12 on the rails (which is what you need). Secondary is the amperage but only really becomes an issue if you plan on powering a huge layout with multiple simultaneous running trains.

thanks for the info conducter. i do plan on expanding the set once i sell all my s guage stuff. it amazes me the difference in american and european prototypes. migt take some getting used to.but the more i look at it the more i like it. and the fact that knowone seems to want to mass produce american prototypes, just cant wait anymore as i really think this is a great scale. any good books out there on these european diesels .

I'm an 'internet' guy so all my resources are online. Wikipedia has been a great source of information. On this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_218 at the bottom there is a list of all German diesels. Not all prototypes have information about them but most do.

jmass do you now German? I bet there are plenty of books out there on the subject. However, since "European TT" is mostly German models, I assume the books would be in German (at least that's all Ive come across). There are some Austrian liveried models but they are german protos.

no tt guy cant speak german bein a jerseyboy, can speak a little brooklynese though.

Here are a couple of books I found on Amazon which are close to brooklynese

"The Encyclopedia of Trains and Locomotives: The Comprehensive Guide to Over 900 Steam, Diesel, and Electric Locomotives from 1825 to the Present Day" - looks like a great all encompassing book, I may pick it up myself:
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Trains-Locomotives-Comprehensive-Electric/dp/1571459715/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248793423&sr=1-7

This also looks interesting but there are no images or comments so it's hard to tell what's inside:
"Deutsche Bundesbahn/German Federal Railways Locomotives and Multiple Units" http://www.amazon.com/Deutsche-Bundesbahn-Railways-Locomotives-Multiple/dp/0906579791/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248793423&sr=1-3

thanks for the info tt guy. ill definetly check it out.

If you are handy enough with electronics, you can make your own power supply.

A while back I bought a box of TT scale track and supplies from an old lady, and in the box was a custom built power box.

The guy that built the box ran his TT scale empire with his wife, when he died she wanted to see that the track and such made it to a good home, so here it is.

Anyways the power box was pretty hefty, it had 3 rheostats on it for 3 individual lines, push button contacts for uncouplers, and signal controls. The thing even had individual circuit breakers for each of the 4 lines (3 track, and accessory line).

Aside from a dent in the casing, the thing works well for the trains now.

MRC 200 works well and can be bought relatively cheap on eBay (wait for auctions with low staring price). MRC 280 is pretty much the same as 200, but with 2 sets of controls. I also used MRC 220, but could not make a good use of the "momentum" thing, so to me it was again the same as 200 model.
If you have a 220V controller and a plug-in upconverting transformer, it shoudl work just fine. As ConducTTor said, in DC the only thing to watch is the output voltage. Even the AC accessory terminals will most likely work fine on all the relays and turnouts, since they work in Europe with 50Hz and here wut 60Hz...