weired wires

[cheese3]

i was hooking up my transformer when the wire hit one DC terminal and one AC terminal and the loco started moving. I have no clue what happened can someone explain

[Jetrock]

Power went from one terminal to the other is what happened--resulting in the loco moving! Don't let it happen again--AC power can damage your locomotive!

[Anonymous]

Ditto on the AC, Jetrock. Also, don't be sleepy like I was once and put your wires to fixed DC! I think the engineer and fireman were badly hurt by the resulting high speed takeoff![:)]

[Anonymous]

The lesson for today, boys and girls, is to make sure the power is off before hooking up wires. [;)]

[jkeaton]

To be precise, cheese 3, you got a short circuit inside the power pack between the variable DC and fixed AC sections. The fixed AC terminals are directly connected to the same transformer inside the power pack that also feeds power to the variable DC section. I hope you didn't damage or burn out the powerpack - possibly but unlikely if the contact was momentary.

Always turn off the power before doing wiring - on 12V DC or 120V AC!

Jim

[cheese3]

thanks for the help guys