I was running my 4 athearn engines on 2 mains was wondering if my locomotion 2500 can handle it pack gets a little warm but not hot
Should be fine. If it’s only getting a little warm, you’re well under the maximum load it can handle.
There is overload protection in it, although running so much that it constantly trips isn’t good for the long term life of the power pack. Since that’s not happening, you’re fine.
–Randy
This is where you use your ammeter, to see what the actual draw really is.
In my experience so far on my railroad, running 8 motors at once (we do not call them engines on the subway) has never drawn more than two amps,
ROAR
That pack is only rated at 16VA so I would imagine that it can deliver somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 amps.
How old are the Athearn engines you are running? Are they BB?
They are athearn blue box
Many Athearn BB are known to pull near 0.4 to 0.5amps under a load.
I remember an old Tech II advertisement from back in the day.They had a boat load of locos on a track and claimed a Tech II could run them for a short trip. The add also warned against trying to duplicate this.
I have been using the 2500 and a 2400 for the last 20 years. My experience with this pack is it takes a bit to trip the breaker. It is not instantaneous unless the throttle is advanced to full.
I imagine the part of the case near the throttle knob is getting warm. Inside is a metal bracket which holds the throttle.The bracket acts as a heat sink and is the source of the heat. The heat does not concern me as much as he total amp load.
So if it were me I would get an amp value at full and 1/2 throttle.
Or better yet, another transformer for the second mainline.