Connecting two lionel 135 powerhouse

have a question. i have two new lionel 135 powerhouse transformers and we  connected them together. we cut the ends off and phased them together and made connection directly to the track.

That's a bad idea. You should never connect together multiple transformers except through the use of a TPC or equivalent device. This is clearly stated in my book, The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition.

is it normal for the other transformer to have 110 volts at the plug end when it is unplugged. the layout is for a kid with autism and we cannot have the plug coming out..

Normal or not, it's a bad thing, period, particularly for a kid to be using.

we ran 4 mth locomotives with smoke on ,52 cars up the grade just fine.

we want to run the power to the track with the tiu in passive mode like in barrys book.

That would be fine, however, only if as described in the book using a TPC or equivalent device.

or should we run it through the tiu?

Absolutely not! That's too many available amps to be drawn through a TIU channel.

does it need in line fuses or are the breakers in the powerhouse enough

I'm not all that familiar with the Powerhouse breakers so I'd err on the side of caution and use fuses as well.

using the tpc , as far as i can tell the transformer wires are still connected before the tpc unit so would it not still be doing the same thing?

 we have your book.

will have to look into it more to see the use of tpc.

did not know it was in thier.

jerry

have a question. i have two new lionel 135 powerhouse transformers and we  connected them together.

we cut the ends off and phased them together and made connection directly to the track.

There really was no reason to do this since you could have just purchased the correct cable set instead of ruining your powerhouses.

my question is , is it normal for the other transformer to have 110 volts at the plug end when it is unplugged.

the layout is for a kid with autism and we cannot have the plug coming out.

What may be happening here is with the one transformer that is unplugged but still connected to the one that is plugged in to the electrical source the one that is plugged is is actually sending power through the one that is unplugged. The one that is unplugged may be taking the 18volts coming from the one that is plugged in and stepping up the voltage to 110 volts. Very dangerous situation.

A fast acting inline fuse would absolutely recommended. The circuit breakers in the PH's will not react fast enough in the event of a short or derailment.

I would sue at TPC 300 to connect the two PH.  That said, you should also have a Command Base with a Cab-1 so you can control the TPC through it.  I'm not into DCS, so I do not know if the data port on the TIA can communicate with the TPC via the data cable.

He doesn't need the CAB-1/Command base as he is running DCS in command mode, albeit passive command mode, aka the power supply is not run through the TIU.   As Barry pointed out that's too many amps to drive through a TIU.  If he uses a TPC and flips the switch on the TPC to command it will run at straight 18 volts.  The only thing he loses by not uses the Command base and CAB is the ability to remotely shut the unit down.   If he had used a TPC 300 and the appropriate cables he would not have had to modify anything and he would gotten his 16 amps to the track and had the built in safety features of the TPC.  By not using a TPC he will have to come up with his own fusing for the paired output.  

Power House bricks are basically fixed tap step down transformers.  If you wire two of them together (even with a TPC) and then don't plug one in, the unit not connected to an outlet will behave as described.   You will be taking the 18 volts provided by the one plugged in and then stepping it back up to 110 volts at the wall plug side of the unpowered one.  That's how a transformer works.  If you really needed over 8 amps and needed two bricks why would you be leaving one unplugged?  If you had used the cables that were made to tie two PH bricks together to run a TPC you could have unplugged the molex connector on the low voltage side and considerably reduced the risks of using only one Power House at a time.

Hopefully all works well.   I have tried to work Parallel PH 180's through a TPC 400 with a TIU with limited success, either in passive or full power mode. All would work but the DCS signal was weak.  Using a Z4000 I had much better results.  

I would say the best way to handle the 110volts is to plug the transformers into a switched power strip and use the switch to turn them on and off. I think the Powerhouses have power switches on them as well. Turning them off before unplugging them should solve the backfeeding problem too.

J White

i have 2-180 ph's connected to a tpc. if i unplug one ph and that ph is turned off at its own switch the ph red light is on and 120vac is obtained at the unpluged end. as far as i am concerned this is an unsafe condition. maybe diodes could prevent backflow of 120vac to the unpluged plug?