Thank you, Bob!
Yes, I added the 500 KV mishap to show it is like an old timer used to say when I was working at that position during my 30s. He would say, "If you don't trip something once in a while, then you aren't doing anything." The same thing happens with snafus we have with our trains and layouts.
What happened in the 500 KV scenario was that burning up the shelf tripped 2 circuit breakers which isolated one 500 KV transmission line from the rest of the station. Since that line stopped carrying any current, current flow in the adjacent lines could have switched direction or increased in the same direction. No customers would have been affected. There is a reclosing timer circuit in the overall scheme that would try to reclose instantaneously, then again at usually 15 seconds, and again at 45 seconds, before locking out at 90 seconds. I do not recall whether the breakers reclosed instantaneously or at 15 seconds, but our only issue then was to replace the burned out shelf. I was the crew leader training another employee. However, he was the one who got a verbal reprimand (at my protest I might add) because he was the one who actually closed the switch causing smoke to be emitted. Rest assured, there were other times when I did trip breakers that turned the lights out for customers until we could get a switchman in to switch everything back in service.
My 45 years experience gave me a respect for electricity, but at low voltages we use with our trains even I can take shortcuts evidenced by burning up a tiny LED.
