Another electrial question

[jhoff310]

Ok guys I got my last electrial snafu fixed, but now I have another question.
( Sorry guys I am dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to electricity) What would cause the internal circut breaker in my powerpack to trip. I have a MRC railpower1300 and an older MRC railline 310. Both of them tripped tonight as I was giving my trains a test run on my layout. Everything died then the circut tripped back and things took off and then died.
Any help would be greatly appericated.
Jeff

[rrinker]

Short or an overload. How many trains were you trying to run at the same time?

Were they by any chance Athearn locomotives that you put Kadee #5 couplers in? If you do that with stock Athearn locomotives, and run them back to back, they will short throught ht ecouplers, but it will be somewhat intermittant.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker

Short or an overload. How many trains were you trying to run at the same time?

Were they by any chance Athearn locomotives that you put Kadee #5 couplers in? If you do that with stock Athearn locomotives, and run them back to back, they will short throught ht ecouplers, but it will be somewhat intermittant.

--Randy

Is this for real? WoW! That is amazing to me! What is the solution to that? Do you have to put some sort of insulator in the screw hole? Or what? That is fascinating.

Sorry, I just found that unbelievable.

We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Darrin

[jhoff310]

I was just trying to run one loco an older atlas, that tripped the circut breaker and then I switched locos to a walthers trainline with the same results

[rrinker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BigDarrin

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker

Short or an overload. How many trains were you trying to run at the same time?

Were they by any chance Athearn locomotives that you put Kadee #5 couplers in? If you do that with stock Athearn locomotives, and run them back to back, they will short throught ht ecouplers, but it will be somewhat intermittant.

--Randy

Is this for real? WoW! That is amazing to me! What is the solution to that? Do you have to put some sort of insulator in the screw hole? Or what? That is fascinating.

Sorry, I just found that unbelievable.

We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Darrin

Yes, it's true. The frame of an Athearn loco is grounded to one rail. If you connec them back to back, obviously one fram is grounded tot he right rail, and the other to the left rail.
There are several ways to fix this - the easiest is to use the Kadee coupler with an insulated shank - it's in the 20-series, all dimensions the same as a #5 but the shank part is plastic. Otherwise you can file down the coupler pads and install #5's using the Kadee box... I know which one *I* do... [:D]

--Randy

[rrinker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhoff310

I was just trying to run one loco an older atlas, that tripped the circut breaker and then I switched locos to a walthers trainline with the same results

Did it happen at the same spot each time? Sounds like the loco is shorting out the track somehow, usually only happen at a switch, or if you have a gap and the polarity does not match on either side - when the wheels bridge the gap, short.

--Randy

[Leon Silverman]

Another way to isolate the cause of your problem is to turn on the power packs with no cars or locomotives on the track at all. If the circuit breakers hold, then you know your trains or locomotives are causing the short/ overload.

[Anonymous]

You will need to do some testing to figure out what is happening. Sounds like a short which can be from any number of causes. Some things to try:
1. Will the power stay on without anything on the rails? If not, it is a wiring problem.
2. Does the overload happen as soon as you put something on the rails?
3. Does it happen at particular spots or everywhere? Return loops can be a problem.
4. Does it happen when you throw a turnout? May be a return loop problem.
That's a start but the list can go on and on and on and . . . .