The beauty of the old tube rigs is that they are pretty much immune to the
junk coming in the power line. In fact, they carried us through WWII with
poorly regulated power supplies, bullets and bombs. I believe the power
transformer burning out is due to either a defect in the transformer or
excessive load upon it. Leaky paper caps in the receiver can provide a
substantial load increase, and that may have been worsened by increased high
voltage.

Remember the radio is older than you are. How would you like it if you were
stressed to the breaking point? Well radio parts do not like it either -
expecially 50+ year old parts.

Once the S40 is "restored", it should keep running for the rest of your life
with almost no further maintenance. It need not be babied or just used on
special occasions. Many similar (but more expensive) radios were used in
communication facilities and left on 24 hours a day for 30 years before
retirement.

You can usually get S40 radios at swap meets for less than the cost of a
replacement transformer. I saw one at a swap meet last week that did not
sell for $50. The owner was just lowering the price when I went by so I
expect it could have been purchased for $25.

If you like the old radios, it is best to start buying as many as you can
get ahold of. Soon, you will need a separate building to store them. And,
46 is pretty young to start collecting. Most of the real collectors cannot
recall that long ago.

73, Colin K7FM