Chuck: In my testings, I was only using the one output. All the other outputs were off. That's why I also setup a test track. When using the test track I only had one output connected. I should have the full 180 watts @ 10 Amps available.
Chris: I originally emailed Lionel support (end of May) and discussed with Mike Reagan. The engineer was thinking it was just my unit that had a problem so he wanted to look at it. I informed Mike that the replacement did the same thing. I tried to follow up and offered to speak to the engineer directly. I never heard back from them. And according to the email I got from Mike, Jon Z was not the engineer. Jim was the engineer and he was looking at the problem. Its my hope Lionel is still looking. In the meantime I wanted to know if anyone else has seen this. Since I can reproduce the problem all the time and with 2 different units, I think its some sort of quirk in the transformer.
I am not complaining about Lionel's support as they did send me a replacement. I am very grateful for them doing that. I offered to talk to the engineer who designed the unit but never got a response. In fairness to them, I did say I could live with it, if that's the way it works but I did request to be kept in the loop since I can reproduce the problem easily.