Amps to high.

Die Cast cars ? 

A locomotive will naturally pull more amps as it is put under more load.

That does sound high. It is also a lot of cars. How many blocks / power districts are you crossing at the same time? How is your layout wired and what power supply are you running? Is the MTH engine the newer or older version?

George

Since two engines yield the same result, I'd be checking the rolling resistance of the cars.  Since I've pulled over 100 cars with two Legacy diesels and never had an issue with over-current with PH180 bricks, I'd say that something is causing an extreme load on the locomotive.

I think John is on the right track ( no pun intended).

I'd inspect each car in the consist individually and make sure you don't have a damaged truck, bent or frozen axle, etc.

here are five powered engines pulling 39 cars....(3 amps)all Premier PS2 and PS3. speed was scale 12 miles per hour.

Is this command-mode with 18V from the transformer?  7-8 Amps is 126-144 Watts (W = V x A)   

I'd be concerned about any engine absorbing that much power.  Presumably you're reading the Amps at the transformer.  The engine may not be seeing all that power due to voltage drops in wiring, connectors, whatever.  If operating command-mode, the Amps readings can be difficult to interpret since the engine will compensate for voltage drops by increasing current draw.  Just another avenue to explore if the load cars are rolling smoothly. 

willygee posted:

here are five powered engines pulling 39 cars....(3 amps)

What is your dual-meter measuring?  Is that the wall-outlet voltage (119V), but the transformer output current (3A) using a donut sensor?  If so, what is the transformer output voltage so that we can get an apples-apples wattage comparison?

Great comments and experience above. It sure seems like this is a borderline short condition. I don't think MTH engines can even draw that many amps without being damaged. If the current is going somewhere else, I would be concerned that whatever is drawing it could be getting very hot!

George

stan2004 posted:

willygee posted:

here are five powered engines pulling 39 cars....(3 amps)

What is your dual-meter measuring?  Is that the wall-outlet voltage (119V), but the transformer output current (3A) using a donut sensor?  If so, what is the transformer output voltage so that we can get an apples-apples wattage comparison?

 

Yes..wall voltage powers the meter. power to the tracks( 18 vac) goes through the donut. 18x 3 = 54 watts.

Edit: the 3 amps may have also included my other loop with 14 other engines sitting in watch dog/dark and silent. When i get a chance i will isolate the reads.