SteveH ... appreciate the research and insights of your series of posts. I run Lionel Legacy Command locomotives. I have been using ATO Smart Glow Blade Fuses for the past couple of years between my Z4000 transformer and Gargraves track ... https://www.mouser.com/datashe...datasheet-461533.pdf My consists typically draw ~2 amps on the inner loop and ~2 amps on the outer loop. Two years ago I opted to go with 5 amp ATO Smart Glow Blade Fuses. The vendor rates them as "Medium/Normal Blow". At the time I figured going with 5 amps would give me some margin for track short circuits. I also have TVS's about every 7 feet around my two track ovals on a 15ft x 10ft track layout. Have had probably 15-20 trips of my 5 amp ATO fuses in the past 2 years ... and ... so far, no known damage to loco electronics.
However, after reading through your post, I became a believer in the Airpax Snapac for a fairly reasonable cost. I just went online to the site you identified and ordered the 5 amp Airpax Snapac circuit breakers Having now compared the 5 amp ATO Smart Glow Blade Fuse datasheet time-current characteristics (in above pdf) to the very fast Airpax Snapacs, I expect the 5 amp Airpax Snapac will trip before the 5 amp ATOs for my normal track short circuit snafus. I also bought a couple of 7.5 amp Airpax Snapac in case I start getting nuisance trips with the speedy-tripping 5 amp Airpax Snapacs.
I will wire them up in series with my 5 amp ATO Smart Glow Blade Fuses. I'll post my anecdotal experience with these Airpax Snapacs vs my ATOs upon receiving them and running my layout for a month or so. We will see.
Thanks again for a well-done analysis.
Regards,
Tom
