How do you test KW/ZW circuit breakers

Walter Anderson posted:

JTrains posted:

Walter Anderson posted:

Deuce posted:

I already have external 5A circuit breakers I'll wire up ... but how do i test the internal breaker to see if it's good.

How about putting  a PW engine on a track short it out, time it? This should answer any questions 

 in case you end up welding the the wire/screwdriver into place and the breaker is defective (and thus cannot "unshort" yourself).

Lol....... don't really have to worry it welding together, do we?...........lol

Don't laugh, but it can (and has) happened (although not personally to me).  

Lol....... don't really have to worry it welding together, do we?...........lol

If you were to short out a pair of terminal posts on a ZW you could wind up with the screwdriver stuck to one of them. Seems like welding to me.
You will get pitting / burn mark.

The are cased in Bakelite but do have a metal bottom plate.  However, their design has the all of the mains parts in the "upper" half of the case (which is in two separate pieces, the top one which is essentially self-contained) so there's no real chance of the bottom plate ever becoming electrically hot.  A pretty safe case design, actually, IMHO - although the remote possibility always exists that the binding posts could become hot.

There is also a remote possibility of the bottom plate becoming "hot"
The hot AC wire could come in contact with the coil bracket or transformer laminations. The baseplate is connected to the coil bracket with metal screws.
But people don't normally touch the baseplate. Conversely, it's not uncommon to rest one's hand on the transformer case.

Maybe the best idea is to plug your train transformer into an outlet that is GFI protected or maybe arc-fault protected.