BTW, if you are using any locomotive with a digital control board and are running it directly from a transformer in conventional mode, you should still use the fuse and TVS to the track.
As for breakers. There's a HUGE time difference between a fast acting fuse and some of the so called, fast acting breakers as most are tripped thermally. They are fast acting when it comes to protecting equipment from over current that is not digital, hence they can use the term. The exception is electronic breakers that actually monitor the current, but those are not cheap. What it says on the breaker and how it actually reacts are not the same. I spent some time looking at the trip curves from the manufacturers on a number of breakers people recommend. The time it takes for a breaker to trip is highly dependent on how far over the breaker rating the current goes. I did not like the variability. They can be dog slow compared to a fuse, depending on the circumstances. The TVS may compensate for that as, when it creates an effective short, the breaker may instantaneously trip. Just got a digital o'scope, so I'm going to get a breaker and see what happens using a TVS diode and breaker from the old RW, when I make an old post war Lionel loco jump the track. (That way I don't have to worry about frying any boards)
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