Quick question

[udidwht]

I recently acquired a 'Cargo King' set and also purchased some additional track/cars and was wondering how many locomotives could you run on an out of box set up? It includes the EMD GP-40 locomotive.

Thanks

Jim

[Jim Banner]

Quick answer - one.



Long answer - I don't see a listing for a 'Cargo King' so I can only talk about sets in general.  Many H0 sets come with a power pack rated at 8 volt-amps.  This means they can run one locomotive with train.  Some sets have a 16 volt-amp power pack and can run 2 locomotives at once.  However, unless the Cargo King is a DCC set, running two locomotives will mean that they both respond to the power pack at the same time - they both start up at the same time and stop at the same time.  Problem is, they will run at somewhat different speeds so if they are running on the same track, one train will eventually catch up with the other.

One solution, if the two locomotive run at about the same speed (and if the power pack is strong enough) is to couple the two locomotive together and use them to pull a longer train than either locomotive can pull working alone.

If your set happens to be a DCC set complete with an E-Z Command DCC controller, then you can run two locomotives on the same track at the same time, each being controlled separately.  One locomotive (and preferably both) will need to have a decoder inside to enable individual control.

Sometimes people will set up two loops of track with a train on each loop.  Then you can run two trains at once, with one power pack, as long as the power pack is powerful enough.  However, the two trains will run at the same time, they will not be controlled separately.

The volt-amp or volt-ampere rating of a power source is about the same as the wattage it produces.  Both are the product of the output voltage and current (amps.)

Jim