Finally got a clear response from Digitrax support. They said yes, and that I only need one power district. I wasn’t aware that I could do this. When I looked into this years ago it seemed that was not the case (at least for the most part).
The reason for this is I have lots of recent “DCC Ready” (Athearn Genesis, Proto 2000, etc). I don’t have the time or want to spend $1000’s all at once to convert all of them. I also have some “interesting” older DC locos that I might like to run on one track, and still have DCC on the other. Also, I can run 50+ car trains. My layout has mostly 2.5% (3% max) grades on curves. I will often use 5 or 6 powered locomotives per train. On one track I might have a third train running (one to three locos). The trains run smoother with no slippage this way.
On top of that, I’ve added a perimeter around the outside of the layout which will allow me to run two point to point tracks independent of each other. I’ll be able to shuffle three trains on one line back and forth and five on the other.
I don’t think 5 amps will do it. And in my experience with electronics, there’s no substitute for “overkill”. There’s less heat produced. Heat is the bain of electronics. I don’t like operating things at or near their limits in the interest of their longevity.
Randy, thanks for the heads up on the older brass stuff. I have only two of those (1970’s?) and I’m pretty sure they have something like the old Kemtron motors. Honestly, they both run like crap compared to modern DC stuff so I doubt they will be seeing any action.