The flipside is, again, if ZW-L is out of your budget, but you want the look of Postwar, then go postwar with some refurbished original ZW transformers that have been serviced and professionally gone through.
Then you still have 2 problems- power protection and bell and whistle commands (ZW only have Whistle).
You need to provide good external fast acting current protection on each channel, and also should provide voltage protection in the form of TVS (Transient Voltage Suppression).
Great example here https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...33#72805549114209033
@CAPPilot posted:Here is my set up for PW transformers.
For PW transformers or any transformer that can put out 20 VAC or more, the TVS model 1.5KE36Ca is recommended. If you only use PH180 or PH135 that have a maximum of 18 VAC then you could get by with 1.5KE33Ca models.
Per Gunrunnerjohn it is best to have the TVS as close to the board you want protected as possible, so he recommends in each engine. I put mine at the track connection. Because the TVS has a failure mode that is not detectable I also put one at the transformer as a backup. I'm also thinking about adding them at the terminal block. They don't impact operations and the are cheap.
My only comment, and I still stand by it, was to place the TVS after the fuse or circuit breaker. This is because they tend to fail shorted and so putting it after causes a failure to trip the breaker or fuse rather than the TVS just fully shorting the transformer output.
