MTFCA Forum

What happens if you have an individual magnet charger wrapped up and you run ac current thru it like from a train transformer and have it wired thru push button switch to just tap it on? If this would work could it be used to charge the magnets mounted in a T motor with the hogshead off? My mind wonders off on these tangents just like most other people and that is where new things come from.

Has to be DC, the current can only flow one way to charge magnets. Except, if you had diodes installed, but even then don't think a train transformer would put out enough current/voltage to do the job.

It must be DC and the polarisation of the charger should fit the original polarisation of the magnet you are charging.
The voltage should be 36 volts and you just need to flash it as it is the build up of the magnetic fialed that moves the "magnets" in the magnet to be aligned. 3 12Volt batteries are a way to go.

AC will UNCHARGE your magnets posthaste! You do NOT want to do that. DC only!!!

It's (strangely) the same reason if you hook up a battery to your magpost by accident - either directly, or a bum ignition switch - the windings on your coil ring will, as you spin the magnets next to it, induce the same "AC current" and de-magnetize your magnets.