Yesterday I had a track short circuit that blew the 5-amp fuse between Z-4000 transformer and Gargraves track. At the time, I did not know what had caused the short and my Lionel 6-85174 Southern #1372 O Scale LEGACY Steam USRA Pacific locomotive went into a funk ... totally unresponsive to Legacy Command Control. Definitely and aaahhh sh** moment that persisted the rest of the day. See atch'd memo documenting my troubleshooting. Note that in addition to the 5-amp quick blow track fuse, I also have transient voltage suppression (TVS) diodes installed about every ten feet on my 14x10 ft oval track layout.
Good news is that the engine apparently had a good nights sleep and immediately responded to Command controls today upon initial track power up. Next good news is that yesterday's short circuit was a combination of sloppy rolling stock wheel truck, too narrow wheel gauge, and a switch with too tight a gap between outer rail and powered center rail stub. Atch'd photos show the short circuit culprit location ... after I had nudged the tip of the switch powered center rail stub away from the offending rolling stock wheel. Pre-fix, the inside surface of the truck wheel was contacting the side of the switch powered center rail stub.
My previous experiences with blown fuse due to rolling stock derails was that my other Legacy locos would immediately respond to Legacy control upon replacing the blown fuse and powering up the track again. But this engine was unresponsive all yesterday afternoon. My remaining puzzlement is why or how did the Legacy engine apparently self-heal overnight? It was totally and consistently non-responsive to any Legacy Command Control yesterday. Yet, this morning, the engine immediately responded to Legacy hand held control upon selecting its loco number and pressing the hand held 'start' button. I don't get it.
Regards,
Tom
