My layout is about 280 feet of Fastrack, with three areas for lighting needs. I run conventional, and Lion Chief Plus locomotives, and have one Legacy (run using a Universal Remote) and two TMCC locomotives.
I use a Lionel ZW-L plus two 270 watt postwar ZW's. The postwar transformers are equipped w/ separate 3A circuit breakers, and they can run separate areas of the layout (coal mine and powerplant). This would allow three people to operate the layout at once- but I have never done that. In addition the postwar ZWs run all the lighting (mostly LED) for the layout, while the ZW-L runs the switches, a Bump N Go trolley, and locomotives.
I know that my power setup is WAY over what I actually need- each of the lighted areas use something like 20 watts of the 270 available from the PW ZWs. I have tested, and each locomotive uses just 2 amps, and I run at most 3 trains on occasion usually just 1 or 2.
The ZW-L is awesome- I like the meters (analog of questionable accuracy) and the fact that the whistle operation and bell is much better than the old ZWs. (I do have yet another ZW as a backup- I went "ZW Crazy" when I was starting up!- that is set for a whistle diode conversion.)
For the money probably the MTH is a better value. I just think the ZW-L has it in the appearance department to these old eyes" department, PLUS the easy add-on remote capability.
