This past weekend I helped out a friend during his open house. His layout is approx. 4200 SQ ft. in size. He has a mix of MTH DCS and Lionel TMCC / Legacy. However, this weekend, we only ran the MTH DCS as we have been having allot of trouble with Legacy (a separate topic). This layout has three TIU's in Super mode. We ran twelve (12) trains, one per channel powered by various "old" Z Lionel transformers. Each channel has a pair of Z's connected to share the load with 15A fuses between the Z and TIU channel. For the most part, a single train (typically a lash up of three PS2 engines) was running on each channel pulling a string of freight cars. However, we discovered that one of the trains a passenger train with 14 double decker cars and three engines was more than enough to blow a channel in one of the TIU's (another topic). The strangest one of all (and getting to my questions) was one of the freight lashups, a triple headed ES44AC string that all of a sudden stopped with smoke pouring out of the cab of unit #3. (we were not running smoke). We could not control them at all, finally managed to shut down the first unit as #2 was also dead. Later (on the test track) we found that yes, 2 and 3 were unresponsive and did not smell so good either. #1 would startup but, would not move. We checked the TIU, it was o.k. then found that one of the ZW's had failed. No output, only output from the primary ZW. We replaced the Z and setup a new lashup using different engines and finished out the next day without and problems. My question is: Is it possible that the three engines were starved for power, overheated and burned out? Like a brown out? Could the failed Z have caused the problem?
I thought it worth noting also that this is the third time that he has had to send these in for repair. Its hard for me to believe this is an MTH failure. I could see one engine fail but, all three? Can't help think we have some power issues to resolve. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Note: we are changing the fuses to 10A and plan to convert the passenger cars to LED. We are also going to add more TIU's. What is the max 5, 10? Also would like to confirm the total Amps per channel I have heard 12A. ??
Hopefully next time we won't have to have a fire extinguisher handy. Lol.
Thanks,
Alex
