Need a few more amps!

[Volphin]

Hello everyone, 

I've recently rediscovered my love of trains and have completed a very large layout for Christmas.  :)

And by very large, I mean 85 feet of Lionel O-Gauge Fastrack across multiple rooms in my home.

I'm also running 2 Fastrack electric switches, and the Train is my old tried and true Polar Express with the Trainsounds Tender, pulling 8 madison cars.

I'm running a CW-80 transformer.  Yeah, I know.  But props to the little fella, she makes average speed around the layout.  However, I have plans for an elevated trestle and the old girl won't push enough amps to climb a grade.

I am considering a Lionel ZW-(R).  Will that get me where I need to go amp-wise?  How many amps will a ZW deliver per channel?  I did  a little research and it looks like the R is the preferred model, but someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I ran a bus for the old CW-80 but that had little effect on overall performance.  :(

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[lionelsoni]

The ZW will give you a total of 15 amperes from all channels before the circuit breaker trips.  You can draw that from one channel or from any combination of channels, as long as the sum does not exceed 15.   This is much more than you can get from the CW-80.

Furthermore, you can exceed 15 amperes briefly, because it uses a thermal circuit breaker, that does a pretty good job of modeling the lag in temperature rise due to the load current.  The CW-80 doesn't give you this flexibility and trips immediately.

There is no significant difference between the ZWs with 250-watt and 275-watt ratings.  These are input-power ratings, not output ratings.

[phillyreading]

When using the older ZW's be sure to use an add-on circuit breaker or fuses from each terminal(A to D)rated around 10 amps, as the older ZW may fry something if a short occurs. The older ZW's just had one breaker that was on the common side and mainly protected the transformer. If you were using only three or four passenger cars with your train the CW-80 might work when going up a small hill or incline.

[lionelsoni]

The internal 15-ampere circuit breaker will not protect your wiring or track if you use wire smaller than 14 AWG, which is why you should use wire that heavy with a ZW.  If a short circuit between one output and common occurs, the internal circuit breaker will protect both the transformer and your 14 AWG wiring.  It will protect neither the transformer nor your wiring, even if heavier than 14 AWG, if it occurs between two outputs.  Adding 10-ampere external circuit breakers protects you against output-to-output short circuits and allows you to use wire as small as 16 AWG, although that may be too small to prevent excessive voltage drop in the wiring and track.