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Reply to "Post war ZW transformer circuit breaker pops after 5 - 10 minutes of running 3 trains simultaneously; what's up?"

I don't have a photo of it, I gave it away to a forum member, but here is what I did to add protection to a Z. Should work fine on a ZW but I haven't actually done it.

I took a piece of Plexiglas and drilled eight holes to match the terminal pattern on the back of the Z. I drilled two extra holes on each end, for a total of twelve holes. I then put the T159/T160 replacement binding posts in the extra holes and slid the whole thing over the Z terminals. You will need a couple washers behind the Plexiglas. Connected PTC resettable fuses from A, B, C and D on the transformer to the four new binding posts. I put the PTC lead between the new binding post base and the Plexiglass so loosening the thumbscrew doesn't loosen the PTC wire. You will need to put sleeving over some of the PTC leads as insulation. 

Now you have added circuit protection to all circuits of the ZW without modifying the ZW or doing much rewiring of the layout or wondering about where/how to mount circuit breakers.

I mounted the extra terminals on the sides of the Plexiglas to prevent interference with the power cord on the Z. On the ZW you could probably put them above the ABCD terminals which would simplify the wire routing.

I used 7 amp holding current PTCs. Suit yourself.

 

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