D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I installed three Tam Valley Soft Starts on my layout about 8 years ago.
The Soft Start limits the initial inrush of current to the layout when ya have numerous DCC locos with sound on the tracks. It's a fix for when the command station won't start up properly due to the numerous locomotives.
A couple years ago, one of them heated up pretty bad to the point it scorched the Homasote board it was mounted to. I didn't replace it, just linked the wires with a set of connectors.
Today, I turned the layout on then had to go back upstairs for about 5 minutes. When I returned there was smoke across the basement all coming from the benchwork above one of the Soft Starts that was still in the system. The Homasote was burning behind the module. I put the embers out with a spray bottle of water then removed the Soft Start from the wiring.
I have one left and I'm thinkin I'll remove that one too as a precaution.
I have RR Amp meters on each section of the layout but none of them were indicating a short of any kind.
The Soft Start limits the initial inrush of current to the layout when ya have numerous DCC locos with sound on the tracks. It's a fix for when the command station won't start up properly due to the numerous locomotives.
A couple years ago, one of them heated up pretty bad to the point it scorched the Homasote board it was mounted to. I didn't replace it, just linked the wires with a set of connectors.
Today, I turned the layout on then had to go back upstairs for about 5 minutes. When I returned there was smoke across the basement all coming from the benchwork above one of the Soft Starts that was still in the system. The Homasote was burning behind the module. I put the embers out with a spray bottle of water then removed the Soft Start from the wiring.
I have one left and I'm thinkin I'll remove that one too as a precaution.
I have RR Amp meters on each section of the layout but none of them were indicating a short of any kind.
