Hey Ben,
Those Heavyweights that I bought from the hobby shop, now out of business, are the same # as yours. Yeah! I like Lackawanna too. Anybody who might have lived in Montclair, N.J., knows that Lackawanna R.R. had a terminal, at Grove St. & Bloomfield Ave. (If I remember right) My stomping grounds as a young shaver, grew up on Glenridge Ave. There was a walk crossover beginning/ending at Pine St. to Bloomfield Ave. in Montclair (now gone). Back in the 50's, Pine St. dead ended at the corner of Pine St. & Glenridge Ave. but with all the changes (tracks gone to the terminal, new apartments, Pine St. extended to Bloomfield Ave. with the crossover gone). The N.J. Transit R.R. Co. took over the R.O.W. of Erie ( back then) up by Pine St., brought the tracks through Sherman St. & Bay St.( station was placed there also at Bay St.) and reconnected around Bloomfield Ave. to Lackawanna R.R. R.O.W. The trains were MU's back in the 50's and as a kid they really fascinated me, especially the signals. I believe I heard as a youngster that the trains in Montclairs terminal were known as the "Millionaires Express" since there were a lot of Wall Streeters who lived in Upper Montclair. Naturally we were considered "to be from the other side of the tracks" and I believe there is still catenary there, just newer catenary.
Anyway, I'm glad everyone chimed in on this topic to help out others and I gained a lot. I'm also glad that the 8 year old child is o.k. Hopefully the joy of running trains is long term.
I Googled: "How long does it take a ZW transformer breaker to trip when shorted". Feb. 16, 2017- The Lionel Test specs for the ZW transformer is that it should put out 30 amps for 11 to 40 seconds before the breaker trips. Wow! I never knew that! I heard from a Lionel service station guy named Jay, that he had told me it could take up to 23 seconds. I never doubted him, but never knew that this transformer could put out 30 amps! That is dangerous! Although being with the N.J. Hi-Railers and The Raritan Valley Hi-Railers (Modular), we always used PSX circuit breakers (both groups). In the Raritan Gang we used the old ZW's along with the PSX and I backed up the protection with a fuse since this was the original safety at 10 or 15 amps, in series with the PSX, just in case the PSX failed. You never know! Before the PSX's we only used the fuses and I can tell you when the 15 amp fuse blew because of a derailment, you can hear it across the layout plus the train came to an abrupt stop! All in all, consider putting a fuse (fuses were before circuit breakers and they did the job in homes as long as one didn't try to "modify" the fuse-larger or putting coins into the socket for what the circuit was rated by the wire size [yeah as an electrician, you wouldn't believe how creative people can be] into your center rail line if you want to use the old ZW. The size of the fuse is something for the operator to figure out because the loads will be different from train to train. I suggest a 10 amp or slightly smaller, to start with, unless you have an ammeter to measure the amps. Check out all of the Googled info about the ZW.
Steam Forever
John
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