I'm sorry, but I read this topic, tried to stay out of it, but came to a very different place on the conclusion.
So your friend buys this new loco out of the box and it pops the breaker instantly. You come over, trying to "help" your friend, so what do you do? You power the loco with the lowest amount of throttle on the transformer, so the massive amount of amperage you know it's drawing in this state doesn't pop the breaker, and just sit there and continue to try program it. And then further- keep on trying to run it.
This is NOT how you troubleshoot expensive trains, and not how you "help" your friends and their expensive trains.
Again, as a lesson to learn here, this has to be the worst thing I think a person could do- sit there and cook the ever living snot out of a train you already know is drawing excessive amperage- just below the threshold of the safety systems trying to protect you from just such ignorance.
Edit- This is a huge reason to have meters on your layout or transformer and some idea of how much current and voltage you are seeing on a given train during proper troubleshooting. Also, having a baseline of knowing that a modern train sitting there not even yet running, probably should not be peaking the ammeter. Especially on a train you know there is some form of a major issue- let's just keep trying to power it over and over.
