Which N scale GG1?

[peteski]

The guitar player in me says it's to give the GG1 better tone! 

Yes, that must be it!  It definitely had that pleasant coffee grinder sound!   

[Point353]

Wow, that's a blast from the past!  These used selenium disks as diodes for directional headlights.

Selenium or copper oxide?

[nkalanaga]

Peteski and Doug: Thank you!

I don't remember ever meeting selenium rectifiers, even in 1970s High School electronics class.  Amazing what one can learn from model railroading!

I have an Arnold GG-1 somewhere, and remember trying to run it a couple times.  It did NOT like code 55 track, so never ran it long enough to notice the reversing headlights.

[peteski]

Selenium or copper oxide?

They were selenium as far as I remember my electronics instructor telling us.

[Doug G.]

Selenium rectifiers are much more recognized as being used in consumer electronics of the nineteen fifties and earlier, like in TVs, radios, ham equipment, etc. and were characterized by being devices with square fins on them to keep the selenium from burning up and stinking up the place. They were the successor to tube rectifiers.

Doug

[peteski]

Selenium rectifiers are much more recognized as being used in consumer electronic of the nineteen fifties and earlier, like in TVs, radios, ham equipment, etc. and were characterized by being devices with square fins on them to keep the selenium from burning up and stinking up the place. They were the successor to tube rectifiers.

Doug

I lived in Poland in the late '60s to '70s.  At that time Poland was behind the West probably over 10 years when it came to electronic technology.  I remember those square finned selenium rectifiers quite well, and how they smelled after overheating.  I also learned all about vacuum tubes (diodes, triodes, pentodes, etc.) in tech school there.