The subject of protecting modern trains from damage from older transformers has been beat to death to the point many folks feel the only salvation is to purchase a brand-new big-time Lionel transformer. Why? Because you need to protect the electronics that are mounted in some of the newest engines. Too slow acting of circuit breakers in the transformers is the culprit.
Soooo, along with some great advice from some experts we have our new external “Gunrunner’ circuit breaker kit. This kit is designed to go between the transformer and the center rail connection for 2 different train loops, and will open the built in manual reset breakers almost instantly in case of a short circuit or derailment.
Here is how it is hooked up. The 2 red binding posts are for one train loop, the two black posts are for another train loop. Does not matter which of the red’s or black’s go to the transformer or track.
For discussion purposes here is an example of where to hook up to the transformer for example 2 trains
To the transformer power output to the trains.
For train no 1 hook up a wire from here to the center rail power, for train no 2 to center rail power
For train loop no 1 wire the center rail to here For train loop no 2 wire the center rail to here
Notice the 2 red buttons on the sides of the kit? These are the manual reset of the circuit breakers. Why manual? So you have time to discover what the problem is before resetting the breakers. Ooops almost forgot what are the large red led’s for? In case the circuit breaker does open the LED for that breaker lights up and stays on till you reset the breaker
New info…..These breakers not only protect the rolling stock but also your transformer itself. We have discovered many transformers which we intended to recondition, were damaged to the point where we had to scrap them. Why due to overheating caused by too slow of reacting of the factory installed circuit breakers. Why does this happen? Because the factory installed breakers up to 5 times more powerful than those which are in the Gunrunner kit, which are somewhat necessary because they theoretically have to be strong enough to run multiple trains and accessories at the same time.
Price $15.00 plus $10 shipping, buy more and not pay additional shipping charges.
With our concern to protecting the transformer and external accessories, we now are offering our new
ACCESSORY POWER CENTER (APC) TO HANDLE ALL YOUR ACCESSORIES, SWITCHES RCS TRACKS ETC
The 2 side mounted posts go to the accessory power output to the transformer (red Positive, black ground, or outside rail power)
All the red terminals are wired together and are internally wired to the circuit breaker with also a manual reset feature (the little red button) The red LED in the center lights up if there is a short detected which opens the breaker. The black posts are used for ground connections to all the accessories. They also are all wired together directly to the side mounted black post.
It is designed with the very large binding posts to allow you to hook up a whole bunch of power and ground connections to. All your switches, RCS tracks, action toys, lights etc, can very neatly be installed using the fork wire connectors we supply.
Price $15 plus shipping, or if you buy more than one or combine them with the Gunrunner kit, you only pay 1 shipping fee.