# 2 locomotives 1 track



## atomiccherry (Sep 21, 2012)

hello I am new to the forum. I am also new to the hobby, I wanted to know if you can run to locomotives on one track. now I don't mean separately, they would run hooked together as they do in real life. What I am wanting to do is to simulate real life freight operations with two engines. Now these would run on a quality transformer say $60 and up range. And that is my concern would two matching engines running on the same track overwhelm the transformer.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Unless it's a REALLY crappy cheap transformer, no you'll not have any problem. (And even those should be able to handle 2 or 3 engines just fine.

Any engines on the same track or block naturally received power from the DC power source (transformer) and will all move. The only variable is that motor speeds or gearings MAY be slightly different between different models, and it's best to have some engines that are somewhat matched or there will be pushing and pulling.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

If there is a difference in speed at any particular throttle setting, the engines will push/pull each other and will draw more current than if they are properly speed matched. 

To see if they run at the same speed, just put both engines on a track (uncoupled) and slowly turn up the throttle. If they stay the same distance apart from each other, they're a great candidate for running as a pair. If not, you'll definitely have higher loads on your transformer....it will work and you'll get more pulling power, but it won't be as efficient as 2 engines that are speed matched.

If you REALLY want to do it right, go DCC and you can physically speed match the engines so that they work perfectly together.

OR....if you don't need to double-head due to steep grades/long trains, you could always run one powered and one dummy unit so that it just looks like you've got 2 engines running. Dummies are cheap too.


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## rogruth (Mar 6, 2012)

What scale does atomiccherry run?
That could make a difference.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The only practical way as a rule to run multiple locomotives on the same track is command/control. DCC for HO, N, or G scale typically, and TMCC or DCS for O-scale.

Yes, it's possible at times to get two running with conventional control, but you're very limited in what you can do with them. You might get them running around the tracks at a relatively constant speed, but doing any real control with them is out of the question.


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## atomiccherry (Sep 21, 2012)

I am going to use ho scale engines.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

atomiccherry said:


> hello I am new to the forum. I am also new to the hobby, I wanted to know if you can run to locomotives on one track. now I don't mean separately, they would run hooked together as they do in real life. What I am wanting to do is to simulate real life freight operations with two engines. Now these would run on a quality transformer say $60 and up range. And that is my concern would two matching engines running on the same track overwhelm the transformer.


 Yes

Put the faster one in front and you will have no problems. I have done this for years. 

In this video there are three trains running off of each of my two DC transformers. 

The draw back is that if you want to stop one you must stop two.

http://youtu.be/AJPkVaWHNAc


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That only works until the fast one catches up with the slow one.


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