Transformer burned up

[charpen88]

 The 80 watt Lionel transformer that came with my Pennsylvania Flyer freight burned up.  Don't recall doing anything different except that I laid out a dogbone track thanks to some help from forum readers who guided me in reversing curve track connector pins.  Is there is history of trouble with these transformers or did I do something wrong?  Still learning after all these years. 

Charles 

[lionelsoni]

There is indeed a long history of trouble with CW-80 transformers.  (You could see it if there were a working search function on the new forum.)  I would drop it in the trash and replace it with, for example, a postwar 1033.

[trainbrain]

Still under warranty??   Usually, the warranty is good for a year.

[Seayakbill]

Yep,  the 80 watt transformer has been a problem for Lionel since its release, although I thought the problems had been resolved. The early versions that came with the starter sets including the Polar Express had a tendancy to trip the circuit breakers then quit altogether. My grandson's starter set had a bad one, I called Lionel, they told me to cut the cord off of it at discard it, a replacement was sent within a week.

[dwiemer]

Call or email Lionel with the serial number on the transformer.  If it falls into the batches that they know have a problem, they will replace it.  Then you can do like Bob suggest and get a 1033 and sell the CW80 on Ebay.

Dennis

[Anonymous]

By "burned up," do you mean that literally, or did it just stop working?  If the latter, that's not all that uncommon with what has to be one of Lionel's most attractive but poorly engineered transformers ever.  There have been frequent reports of various type of problems with this transformer, but to the best of my knowledge Lionel just keeps cranking them out without so much as acknowledging the various issues.

If it REALLY burned up, then that's a bit of a new problem to add to the list.