When I built my last layout all of my loops were wired as one hole loop. I was advised by Patrick H. to split each loop into 4 separate sections in case of A short. If you are running A train and A screw falls out and shorts out the transformer you only have 1/4 of the loop to look for A short/problem. Do I run power from the transformer to 4 resettable relays and run power from each relay to each 1/4 of the loop or how do I do this? Choo Choo Kenny
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Actually, it's four resettable circuit breakers, but yes. If zone 2 trips, you know where to look rather than having to go through the whole layout. It's a good idea to break a layout into power districts, particularly if it's a larger layout, but sometimes that can still be impractical. You kinda have to do the best you can in that regard.
Pretty hard to get a short on a loop unless you are using the old tubular track with metal ties. Even with those deterioration of the insulator is relatively rare. Most modern track has plastic ties. The only culprit might be some kind of track activating section or maybe a turnout.
Loops are sometimes partitioned now if the DCS system is used in relation to getting a good signal. Even doing that the car rollers jump the sections negating the effects.
As for the resetable circuit breaker to each section,they will trip trip before a ZW,but way after a modern transformer such as a Lionel brick or MTH Z4000. If you wire correctly you should no have shorts,except those caused by a derailment.
As far as finding a short,if you disconnect the transformer you can use and ohm meter to find a short and look at obvious vulnerable sections as mentioned.
However if you want to do this, isolate the center block sections and run the wires to a central barrier strip with the terminals jumped. From there you can easily remove the wire to each section.
Dale
If you used four of these, one for each district, you'd have the ultimate protection. They have LEDs on them to signal that they tripped and are lightning fast to protect against welding at the short. They are also are jumper selectable as to trip amperage from about 5 amps to 18 amps. These are much better than most resettable relays.
The purpose of circuit breakers are to protect the wire,not the equipment. Standard thermal breakers are fast enough to do this unless there are branch lines that are too thin. The track welding problem is usually caused by people paralleling 2 transformers deliberately or through roller jumping. Breakers too sensitive could perhaps trip too fast. For example charging a BCR is a very brief short in the beginning.
If you put a breaker to each section as described when one or more set of train rollers jump adjacent blocks the breakers are effectively wired in parallel. 2, 10 amp breakers wired in parallel I think would make an effective 20 amp one. 3 wired in parallel would make a 30 amp one. The physics of doing this is a bit complicated as they may not share the load equally,but they will not act the same as a single breaker. A lot depends on the wiring and nature of the fuse or breaker. This may be a question for Dale Manquen or John here.
Dale H
Choo Choo Kenny,
When you use one transformer to power 4 separate electrically isolated sections of track (isolated center rails), the sections of track are usually referred to as blocks. I mention this because many people on the forum are familiar with that term and may be more likely to respond.
As Dale mentioned, most modern transformers have very fast resettable circuit breakers. I use Lionel's PowerHouse 180s for this very reason. If you are using an older transformer, I would recommend a fast blow fuses instead of a CB because most add on CBs are not as fast. The exception is the PSX CB Chuck listed; I use these too and they work faster than the 180s CB.
If you want to isolate each block for troubleshooting, and you have a new transformer (MTH or Lionel), I would consider using toggle switches instead of CBs. If you get a short and the transformer's CB trips, you can turn on power to each section one at a time to find your problem. To do this with, say a PH180, I would run wires from the PH180 to a terminal block, and then separate wires to each block through the toggle switch.
Enjoy building your new layout.
Thank you every one for your help/information. chuck thank you for the link and after reading about the product and the price I have decided to go another way. With the resettable breakers being $50.00 each and I need 18 of them that = out to $900.00 plus shipping A little to costly for me. I spoke to one of the PGH. High Railers and decided to go with in line replaceable fuses. Thank you everyone for your help and take care. Choo Choo Kenny
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