Track voltage climbed from 17.6v up to 24v

Is there more than one transformer and power district on the layout?

Thanks, the power is two new 180w bricks run through a Legacy 360w powermaster, using a Legacy Control System. I used 12 gauge wire, soldered to the tracks directly. I’ve shut it off and came back. Same 24+volts. The track is a long dogbone with numerous switches, and sidings. Only used for track power. I had run the engine for 40 minutes prior to meter reading high. I got no red surge light or trip.

It's hard to imagine the bricks doing that if it's wired correctly.  It's pretty much impossible for the bricks to jack up the voltage like that.  The one possibility, and I've seen it happen twice over the years, is a failure of the incoming power to your house.  If you have a floating neutral, the two sides of the panel become unbalanced and one side will have low voltage and the other high voltage.  Check the voltage of the outlet that the PH180's are connected to and make sure it's not more than 125 volts.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I've seen it happen twice over the years, is a failure of the incoming power to your house...

I was thinking the same thing, we are getting battered with wind in the NE right now with a cold front approaching and there are trees down and power outages  / interruptions all over.

If it's a floating neutral, you will want to IMMEDIATELY unplug any sensitive electronics, and you might want to rescue stuff like your $2,000 fridge from destructive power as well!  I had that happen once in a previous house, and I had a friend with the same issue.  In both cases, there was considerable carnage with electronics, light bulbs, etc.  I was fortunate that it didn't take out the two fridges, but my friend wasn't so lucky.

In my neighborhood the neutral wire is bare aluminum. The squirrels gnaw on the aluminum to sharpen their teeth and the neutral has been broken twice. When that happens the refrigerator power goes down to about 55 volts, while the power to the computer goes up to around 165 volts.

The electronics and wall warts go poof!

I had the same thing happen to my GW-180.  I've been running it for years with no issues.  I have voltmeters hooked up to each of my track loops.  Last week I just happened to check the meter when I started to run an MTH steam engine and it read 26+ volts.  I immediately shut it off an powered it up again.  Back to 19+ volts with no problems since.

Ron

If the voltage at the receptacles that feed your trains is not near 125 Volts, check the voltage on several receptacles in your house, at random places. Let us know what you find.

I’ll take low battery voltage in the multi-meter for $1000 Alex.

Thank you everyone for the support and concern. It was normal all along. The meter was off. New battery and all reading back to normal.

You're lucky, for a couple of bucks it's all fixed.  It could have been a couple thousand!

Step one: Test the tester.