Power Shield™ Circuit Breakers

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All of us who use Command Control Systems are aware of the annoyance and damage caused by track shorts. At the least, a track short interrupts operating, at the worst, it can fry expensive power supplies or related components or hardware. Of course, track shorts multiply in conjunction with the number of operators.

There have been many solutions proposed : Ballast Lamps, Relays, Kill Switches and Swearing. None of the above have been good solutions. The problem is that all good power supplies, whether conventional DC or Command Control DC or AC have built in circuit protection that senses a short and shuts down all power in about 1/4 second. While this in most cases protects the power supply, it obviously shuts down all activity until our co-operators get their Loco back on the track, etc. Furthermore, this circuit protection can go on and off with lights, bells or whistles, while our buddy is struggling to get his 18 wheel articulated Loco back on the track. Does it not just drive you nuts?

There is now a simple inexpensive solution.

I have developed the application, optimized and thoroughly tested a specialized circuit breaker that trips instantaneously, resets immediately and has a panel mount, toggle switch type reset with on/off function. Simply install this breaker in either power buss lead or track feeder group to provide protection. See fig. 4 & 5. For the ultimate protection and convenient operating, I suggest one Power Shield™ minimum and then one other for each regular operator.

Here is the logic:

Use Power Shield™ to create power districts. A small layout, 4' x 8' could be one power district. You would install the Power Shield™ on one lead, of the mixer/booster output. A short on the layout would trip the breaker sparing the mixer and you of the annoying alarm, etc. When the short is corrected, you flip on the breaker and you are back in action. The breaker will not reset if the short is not corrected. Even on a small layout, I would use two breakers and divide the power for either each half of the layout or one for the mainline and one for the yard or sidings. The larger the layout, the more power districts you will want to segregate active areas. Each Power Shield™ will handle enough current to run 2-8 Locomotives, depending on scale and Loco current draws.

If you are skeptical, here are the reasons you should use Power Shield™:

• Mixer or Booster Protection: Even though these units have built in protection, the protection circuitry after numerous shorts will eventually fail. The most common Onboard mixer failure is the burnout of a feedback resistor in the alarm circuit.
• Locomotive or Electrical Accessory Protection: Power Shield™ eliminates the extremely violent voltage and current spikes caused by hard shorts which can melt wheels and accessories.
• Fault Isolators: When Power Shield™ trips, you know where the problem is.
• Track Power On/Off: Toggle switch feature.
• Reverse Loop Protection: If an operator fails to choose the correct polarity for a reverse loop or track polarity change, Power Shield™ will tell him/her.
• Enjoyable Uninterrupted Operating: This is number one in my opinion. Power Shield™ keeps the layout up and running for those operators who can stay on the track or avoid running against turnout's.

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