I have an Aristocraft motor block that has 2 leads coming from inside the carcase. One lead has a 3 pin plug and the other a 2 pin plug.
I want to use this motor block as a bogie under a passenger coach to assist the loco pulling a 6 coach consist - the coaches are long and are handbuilt replicas, so are heavy in comarison to ‘off the shelf’ units.
Can anyone tell me how to wire the motor block so that it will opperate in the normal way for track power?
Thanks, Spur42 - down under in Oz.

One plug is the track pickup and the other goes to the motor. If you hook one wire from each plug together and then hook the other wires together. If you put the truck on the track, it will run when you apply power.

Thanks Bill - I will set it up on the weekend and see what happens.
regards, Nelson

If you don’t have a simple Volt-Ohm meter it would be a good investment to pick one up. The cheapies (Under $20) would be good enough to determine which lead is which. On the Ohms scale, you will get a fairly high reading when you connect the meter between the two pins of the motor plug. For the power pick up plug, you should get a Zero reading between a wheel and one wire of that plug and an infinite reading between both pins of the pick-up plug.

If all you want to do is make the block run on track power, connecting the two plugs together should do the job. Which direction the block runs will depend on which wire from the pick-up goes to which wire on the motor. To simplify, if it runs backwards just swap the wires around.

Thanks Guys,

I wired the block as suggested and it works just fine. All I have to do now is build a cradle so that it can be attached to the coach…

regards, Nelson - down under in Oz