Track Problems

So when you say "throwing the breaker" you mean the breaker on the power strip, not the Z1000?

What locomotive causes the problem?

Only at a certain part of the layout or any place?

The breaker is is being blown on the power strip and it's location is random. It occasionally blows the breaker on the brick too. It doesn't matter which locomotive is running, any two running will make it blow. 

Just to be clear, the Z-1000 brick is the only device plugged into the power strip?  And by power strip you mean a garden-variety 6-outlet type?

No the circuit will break on either the strip or the brick. I have a really good power strip and there are other things plugged into it. I tried plugging the brick directly into the wall outlet but I had the same results. It just doesn't make any sense at all but I am no electrician. I do not want to rewire the track power for the layout but I think that maybe the only solution.

What is the current rating of the strip ?

Have you tried using an extension cord running from the strip to a different outlet that is not on the same circuit ?

Chiming in because I feel I have issues with my Z1000 as well.  For some reason it cannot handle certain things that my CW80 can.

Yes I tried an extension cord. I have a ZW 275 I can try also but I need to purchase an inline fuse first.

Well, here's one scenario.  Let's say a power strip can support 1200 Watts and the Z-1000 is capable of 100 Watts...and both are "protected" with a suitable a circuit breaker.  I am purposely not getting into the details of Amps and such.  Just broad strokes here.

Suppose all your other devices plugged into the power strip are using 1100 Watts.   Suppose an engine draws 50 Watts.  Everything is fine.  The power strip and the Z-1000 are not overloaded.  But now add the 2nd engine drawing an additional 50 Watts.  Now the power strip is at 1200 Watts AND the Z-1000 is at 100 Watts.  So it's a coin toss as to which breaker trips first.

Note that if above scenario indeed described the situation, then swapping in the 275 Watt capable ZW simply means the power strip will always trip first.  That is, with 2 engines the power strip will be at its 1200 Watt limit but the ZW will "only" be at 100 Watts and hence not at its limit.

I will do away with the strip then. I will have an inline fuse going between the 275 and TIU and that should be safe I assume?

There have been several OGR threads on augmenting the ZW internal breaker with inline protection on individual outputs.  For example, check out this one.

I got the inline fuses last night and I will give it a whirl. They suggested putting them on the common lines too which I will. I know my ZW breaker is fine as I just had it rebuilt but it doesnt help in my case since I need it on the power side. One question though that I didnt see and answer to. Does it go between the track and TIU pr the transformer and the TIU?

Between transformer output and TIU input.

Thank you very much. I hope it is an end to my frustration.

Will this inline fuse do. I got several with 5-20 amp fuses?

By 5-20 I assume you mean an assortment of say 5,10,15, and 20 Amp.

Peeling the next layer of the onion, Watts = Volts x Amps.   If you look at the 18V output, 100 Watt Z-1000 you'll see a 6 Amps breaker.  18 Volts x 6 Amps = 108 Watts.

I'm not familiar with how the ZW can "allocate" its 275 Watts to the various outputs.  But assuming you'd set the ZW output to 18V, then 10 Amps would be 18V x 10 Amp = 180 Watts.  I'd start there. 

Note that 5 Amps would only be 90 Watts so you'd be no better off (so to speak) than the Z-1000. 

The problem was solved today when I hooked the ZW up. Two trains ran for a hour or so without a hitch. Thanks to everyone foe all the help.