Protecting the Equipment

While I don't have Legacy or DCS, I have 4 transformers plugged into a surge protector out in the garage.

 

- Mike

I simply unplug them.  Legacy needs a good earth ground and a lot of surge protectors and such do not provide that.  A lot of issues have been solved by bypassing an AC strip with a surge protector.

I have both my layout, which is equipped with both Legacy and DCS connected through a surge protector.  A dedicated wall switch controls power to the layout and half of the room lights.

I don't think you can fully protect the Base by doing things like a UPS or surge protector on the AC power side.  The "antenna system" that radiates the signal to the locomotive - the outer rail and the earth ground system of the house wiring - work well in reverse, receiving an electromagnetic pulse from a nearby lightning strike.  (This is known as antenna "reciprocity".  An antenna that transmits well also receives well.)  

 

I have repaired Bases that are fine on the incoming AC power side, but blown on the device that outputs the track signal due to the pulse feeding backward into the thumbscrew terminal.  The capacitor in series with the thumbscrew, usually rated at 100V, is usually fried, as is the output transistor.

 

I believe what is lacking is a TVS directly from the internal ground of the Base to the thumbscrew terminal.

A UPS or surge protector will not defend against a lightning strike. I have personally experienced this. Many new surge protectors offer lifetime warranties. If you read the fine print, you will find that the warranty is not valid in Florida. Care to guess why? The best protection for your trains is to unplug them from the wall. Of course, a TVS can't hurt either.

We had a whole house surge protector installed when we redid our electrical service. With so many electronically controlled appliances in our house, it seemed like a good idea.

The eletrician that bid the job recommended that we continue to use local surge protectors too because you want the protection as close to what is being protected as possible.

According to my understanding, if the surge came from the power lines, the whole house proector would do the job. But if the surge came from a branch, things on that branch would probably get hit because they were on the same side of the protector as the source.

I think the only real way you can protect your whole house is with a Lighting Arrestor.  

Adding to my previous post about lightning protection:

1.  The antenna system will pick up nearby strikes.  The lightning does not need to hit your electrical system.  It could hit a tree or a grounded structure nearby, but still damage your Base.

 

For some of the Bases I have repaired, there was no other damage at the residence.

 

2.  If you have Pin 5 connected to any earth-grounded device such as a water pipe, unplugging your Base from the wall will not protect the output stage.

 

3.  The larger your layout, the larger your receiving antenna is, and the stronger the damaging pulse can be.

We've lived in Florida, which is arguably the lightning capital of the world, for more than 25 years and I've experienced several lightning strikes on or around the homes in which we've lived. I make it a habit to have everything electronic that we own plugged into a high-quality sure protector. That includes putting surge protectors on the cable lines, as well. Phones lines aren't an issue since our phones use VoIP and run over the cable.

 

Further, I have separate APC UPS's protecting all of the computers and peripherals, as well as the train layout. The only things I've ever lost due to a lightning strike that took out a pair of our very large pine trees were several of the alarm sensors on the doors and windows.

 

One of the previous posters mentioned that UPS guarantees don't apply in Florida. I've never heard that before and would have trouble believing that it would be legally permissible for a company to limit its guaranty in that particular way.

 

I also understand that surge protectors and UPS's may only be effective (no guarantees on this!) against lightning strikes that occur on the away side of the power company's transformer. All bets are off if there's a direct house strike, or power line strike on the house side of the transformer.

 

Regardless, I believe that the best protection your train set can get between it and the AC wall outlet is a UPS. In addition, as I was working at the computer this morning, we had a lightning strike nearby that put the lights out for a second or so. My computer never missed a beat, although the cable and the Internet went away for a few minutes.  

I have seen HO layouts with a light switch for all 3 wires (+) power wire, (-) power wire and the ground wire.  This would be the same as unplugging the transformer, with all 3 switches off.

 

I use 2 surge protectors, plus an power switch on a 3rd power strip ( do not know which wire + or - that it is switching off in the power strip) for my TMCC system.

 

When I move my TMCC system in the future I plan to use the 3 light switches to cut all 3 wires to the system.

I'd just use a 3PST switch to do the same thing in one move.