Hi everyone! My father setup his old Lionel train set from the 50's for Christmas. This is the first time ive seen it setup in 20 years and we have really enjoyed it so far.

He was running a 2065 engine and I bought him a used 2046, and a Gang car to run in addition to what he had. Both pieces after they were cleaned up and lubed run fantastic.

The problem we are having is they wont all 3 run at once for very long without blowing the breaker in the LW transformer we have.

So far, what I'm reading is after they heat up the output of the transformers decrease and so my guess is running the 2 engines pulling cars, the gang car, lights and switches are just too much for it.

I was thinking to purchase a ZW transformer and surprise him with it but we are running everything all on one big track not multiple tracks so that makes the ZW pointless right since the 275w is cut in half (137w to each track output)?

So would it make the best sense to buy a TW transformer since it outputs 190w out of one output?

Any info and suggestions would be great. Thanks everyone!!!!   

  Thanks for the info it has been a fantastic read and given me a lot of information!!

If you have not purchased anything yet, the MTH Z4000 is a great choice, and does not hurt your wallet.
Check this video I did on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZeYOTClHLc&list=UURIdaxu2Zn2iXOLthUGiHoA&feature=c4-overview