Easiest Wiring For Lionel 6019 And UCS - Push Button Operation!

The original 2-button controller uses four wires to activate these functions. These are not simple push buttons, but a complex contact-stacking system to send the proper circuit to the proper rail. But these buttons are often found broken today - or missing entirely - or the wire insulation has become old and brittle, and no longer functions properly. These buttons also take up a lot of real estate on a control panel.

But what if this large two-button, four-wire apparatus could be replaced by a simple push button - like a doorbell button or other simple button? Can you still have universal operation?

Yes, you can - but with one caveat. You will lose the ability to uncouple older electromagnetic couplers on one side of the track section. However, most of us don’t have many of these cars - if we have any at all - AND we can still uncouple one side of the car AND have full operating functions for operating cars and all other magnetic couplers, so it seems to me that the tradeoff is worth it.

The key to this system is to make one control rail - the one that is NOT electrically tied to the center magnet - PERMANENTLY common. This control rail (or two on the UCS sections) will always be electrically connected to the outside rails. The other control rail, which is tied to the center magnet, will be either on or off. When ON, a standard coupler or plunger car over the center magnet will activate or uncouple accordingly. An electromagnetic coupler will pick up the HOT from the control rail through the sliding shoe, uncouple, and complete the electrical circuit through the truck to the COMMON on the outside rail. A shoe-operated car will pick up the HOT from the HOT rail through the pickup shoe, travel through the activating motor or solenoid of the car, and find the COMMON through the opposite shoe through the COMMON control rail.

In other words, you no longer need to know which button to press for which function. With the car positioned on the track, just press the button and the car will do whatever it is supposed to do!

When the button is released, only the COMMON side of the circuit is active, so neither the magnet nor anything else is powered through the track.

Got the concept? Let’s do the wiring!

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Items and Materials:

Momentary Push Button Switch, SPST Normal Open: https://amzn.to/3mn47KM
Lionel UCS Uncoupler: https://ebay.us/z89Upg
Lionel 6019 O27 Uncoupler: https://ebay.us/RFki0g
Other Lionel Uncouplers: https://ebay.us/7YUjcv

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