Model Railway Forum

Hello All,

Seems there are no DC circuit breakers out there. Plenty of DCC but all say for DCC only.

Would resetable car/truck fuses do the same job.

There also seems to be a world wide shortage of major electrical componants preventing suppliers offering parts.

Dirk

I have never thought of using a circuit breaker.

Most old DC controllers had circuit breakers built in.

Gaugemaster still have them.

Rapid sell them https://www.rapidonline.com/trupower-fc ... er-26-1140
CPC Farnel have them https://cpc.farnell.com/unbranded/an-16 ... dp/FF00496
RS Components sell them https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/thermal-breakers/7740083
Plus as already stated, Gaugemaster sell them too.

The Hammond & Morgan duette controllers also have them built in. I have 2 of these controllers and believe me, the cut outs certainly do the job when a short or overload occurs.

You can. use a car "blade" circuit breaker. This one on ebay is 12v 5A and other sizes are available
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321268071405 ... 0193308246

You can buy an inline blade holder also on ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143330632400

Morning All,

Many thanks for your replies at least now I can look around here in Australia after getting an idea of what I am looking for. Might even be time to be looking at switching over to DCC
sooner than later. My controller has an auto resetable fuse but it doesn't seem to be very fast acting nor does it have any warning other than the engine stops.

Is fuse voltage going to be a worry. My controller is at 15v's odd.

Sorry for all the questions.

Dirk

Hi
Your main issue is going to be obtaining a circuit breaker with a low current rating for use on DC. You really don't want anything over 1.6 Amp and ideally 1.0Amp threshold would be the best option for DC track protection.

Car/Truck breakers/fuses often don't go that low and using a higher amperage would IMO be a total waste of time, as it's very unlikely to trip on a conventional DC train controller!

Please note these thermal breakers or even fuses are not suitable for use on DCC power, as they are far to slow in operating.

Thanks Brian always good advice. Looks like more searching again.

Dirk