Need Advice on Powering Layout Lighting

Wow,....burn out 100 watts!? Must be some kind of light show. I still like incandescent bulbs inside of houses, buildings, towers etc. I use a couple of older V and KW transformers. Controls are the dimmers. My cent and a half worth of advice.

I'd start by calculating the load and sizing the power supply accordingly. If you are carrying more than 100w (or close), consider splitting up the load.

You can also replace a lot of the old incandescent lamps with LED's which will drop the power consumption dramatically.

The failure could have been as simple as a loose connection that heated up too. If the breaker in the brick didn't trip, then I'd lean toward this as your problem.

@RSJB18 posted:

The failure could have been as simple as a loose connection that heated up too. If the breaker in the brick didn't trip, then I'd lean toward this as your problem.

What he said.

I installed a 800w low voltage (12 volt) outdoor lighting transformer by the name Malibu many years ago and it's been great for a 12 volt non variable bus. There's several threads under malibu.

@RSJB18 posted:

I'd start by calculating the load and sizing the power supply accordingly. If you are carrying more than 100w (or close), consider splitting up the load.

You can also replace a lot of the old incandescent lamps with LED's which will drop the power consumption dramatically.

The failure could have been as simple as a loose connection that heated up too. If the breaker in the brick didn't trip, then I'd lean toward this as your problem.

Thanks, that's good insight. The breaker on the 100 watt brick has never tripped but I had it connected to a 75 watt brick and that DID trip so maybe it's the controller. As I type this I'm thinking that the failed controller connection has always been loose. I have another controller that I can connect. And I'll check to see if the connection gets hot. FWIW all of the Lionel light towers (2 and 4 bulb) are incandescent. Same with the MTH and I kind of like incandescent.

Will also look at the Malibu option.

A bad connection causes resistance; resistance causes heat; more heat causes more resistance; and so it goes. You can also look into a computer power supply. They are as low  as $33 for 600 watts on Amazon. The price is just right if you take one out of an old desktop. You get 12, 5, and 3 vdc taps along with lightning fast overload protection.

I measured the power as recommended and got about 70 watts close to layout "full brightness" mode. 12.5 volts and 5.5 amps. So that explains why the 75 watt brick breaker was tripping. I also -- as recommended -- swapped the controller and found that even at 70 watts the barrel connector was cool to the touch. So that confirms the poor connection observation with the failed controller. Finally, if 12 volts provides the brightness I want then a Malibu power supply is a perfect solution for more power. In the end though I needed an excuse to buy a really cool refurbished 250 watt Lionel Z type transformer I found on eBay! Thanks for all of the spot on feedback and help. Just what I needed.