# Crest Revolutions in Hartland Birney Cars?



## Tom Ruddell (Jan 9, 2008)

Anybody have wiring diagrams and/or other wisdom for installing Crest Revolution receivers in Hartland Birney cars? 

I recently acquired a CRE57000 with receivers for two double-truck and one single-truck Hartland Birneys and haven't been able to turn up any specifics on the wiring. Thanks to phone prompts from our friend Stan Cedarleaf (at a train show in California), I managed to link the single-trucker and got super-excited as to how well that little beauty runs with the Revolution's speed and momentum settings. Can't wait to get all three cars running at the same time independently with constant lighting and a single hand-held controller!

The nice folks at Hartland are away at the convention in Cincinnati all week and will be able to send me diagrams about the time Nancy and I are leaving for Oregon to visit our son and his family. Ugh, what timing on my part!!!

Problem with the single-trucker is getting the lights to work. Not sure the voltage of the interior lights and how the reversing headlights are to be connected re: the 100-ohm resisters shown on page 34 of the Crest manual. In fact, I'm not sure if the lights run through resistors or diodes. I have one of the double-truckers opened up with a similar lighting mystery plus a puzzlement of controlling the underfloor power truck (which also picks up power from the track) vs. the easily accessible through-the-floor can motor in the single-trucker.

Hope to shoot movies of the three cars in operation at night to show the grandkids while we're in Oregon. That, plus patience has never been one of my virtues, especially when, in our former home, it came to running trains in the garden (the Bethlehem Central Railroad, purchased in April by Mark Johnson of Silver State Trains) and now, in our much smaller digs, it comes to running trolley cars in our courtyard!

Many thanks,

Tom Ruddell
Dothan, Alabama


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom, I just simply allow the original wiring to work the lighting. So much simpler...


Wire the lighting back the way it was originally and not through the REVOLUTION harness that you have.. 

Just isolate the track inputs red and black on the REVOLUTION receiver plugin and the orange and gray back to the motor and the light wires. Both units should work as they were in their original configuration. 

Motor and lights controlled by the REVOLUTION output.


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## Tom Ruddell (Jan 9, 2008)

Thanks, Stan. The wiring should be back the way it was. Constant lighting is on, including the front headlight. But while the car ran beautifully without lights yesterday, tonight it has most lights but barely runs at all. A few jolts, then nothing. I relinked it and it ran for a short time, then stopped again. Front headlight stays on in both directions. At this point, it seems the best thing to do is wait for a wiring diagram and try to start over. 

I appreciate your help and hope al when well at the train show and you had a safe trip back to Dewey.

Tom


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom...


Sounds like you may have a lighting wire soldered on the wrong side causing a short.... 

Not sure but that's what it sounds like..


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## Tom Ruddell (Jan 9, 2008)

When it comes to shorts, I'm an expert :-( 

Good thought. I'll disconnect the red & black feeds from the four-connection strip and see if the car runs okay. If so, I'll test them with the red going to the terminal next to the terminal with the black bundle of wires and the black next to the bundle of reds. That's not the way it was wired out of the box, but it's sure worth a try. 

On the double-truck Birneys, I'm still mystified as to how red and black wires can come from the powered and trailing trucks, go through the Revolution and come out separating into variable power for the motor and constant power for the lights with reversing headlights. Guess I'll just have to wait for the wiring diagram on that one.

As a member of a tiny student minority earning degrees in journalism from a university noted for its electrical engineering program back in the 1950s, it's a shame nothing rubbed off from the circuit-heads who walked around campus wearing ohm meters around their necks. 

Many thanks again, Stan, for sharing your expertise. 

Tom


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