quote:Originally posted by Doug N:
Thanks Chuck. I guess I could try 1 brick for each line and see what happens. Is there a rule or thumb that a can motor draws "X" amount of power and an average for a lighted passenger car? Much of what I will run will be freight but since I am wiring now I wanted to not have to change later. Also I am thinking o using the common "return" for the layout as Dale has shown in the past with 14 gauge house wire and buses.
Doug
I don't know of a rule of thumb, but I ran a TMCC diesel with two can motors and it took about 2.25 amps max on level track pulling 4 box cars. Then I put an 18 inch long heavyweight passenger car on the track by itself and it took about .75 amps. Well lit long passenger cars can take a lot of amps. Some are converting them to LEDs.
My example of the train club guys running four trains at the same time was 6 engines all running at reasonable scale mph on level track. No extra loads from passenger car lighting. I'm not sure how many motors total that was.
