Trains.com

what would cause the short

592 views
1 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    August 2010
  • 4 posts
what would cause the short
Posted by LIONEL10 on Saturday, January 15, 2011 3:37 PM

YOU NEED TO HAVE ALL YOUR O-GAUGE SWITCHES OFF OF TRACK POWER AND ON ONE ZW TRANSFORMER.  YOU CAN DO THIS BY USING CONSTANT VOLTAGE PLUGS ON YOUR O22 SWITCHES.  YOUR SWITCHES SHOULD BE INSULATED BETWEEN YOUR MAINLINE LOOPS WITH THREE PLASTIC TRACK PINS.  YOU TRAINS SHOULD BE ON ONE TRANSFORMER PER TRACK.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin, TX
  • 10,096 posts
Posted by lionelsoni on Saturday, January 15, 2011 4:48 PM

I'm pretty sure that the circuit breaker that is tripping is in one of the ZW transformers, not one in the panelboard feeding the 120-volt branch circuit that the transformers are plugged into.

He seems already to be powering all his many turnouts from one of his ZW transformers.  I suspect that that is overloading that transformer.

There is no need to insulate turnout rails generally.  Only the control rails need insulating pins.  I believe that he is powering all the track on each of the four layouts from one of the ZW outputs, which means that he doesn't need any other insulating pins unless he has SPST switches to shut off sidings and other similar sections of track, in which case only the center rail should be insulated.

There is nothing wrong with running two layouts from one ZW transformer, if it can handle the load.

Bob Nelson

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month