Controlling 5 tracks thru 1 TIU?

I frequently have 3 trains, including passenger cars, running on a single TIU channel.  All the locos are can motors & I never use smoke, and the result is well within the 10-amp nominal limit of a TIU channel.

You could use a SPDT switch to feed one track either from one transformer handle or from a TIU output which also serves another track.

Gerry, I know you can control multiple tracks on the same TIU channel because I did it on my Christmas layout this year.  However, I just set up jumpers from one track to the other and used the same PH-180 for both.

Yeap, as they said, just a few limits. 10 amps total, a certain number of pieces of track per channel (see Barry's book), and a certain limit on total track joints.

The TIU will try and put signal on whatever you connect to it. The problem is you can squash the signal with too much. I like to say that when the power starts dipping, the signal may too.

Another option is to add the signal from the output of the TIU onto another track passively. That frees up the 10 amp limit part. Command engines will respond to commands although you won't control conventional engines thru the DCS system on those rails. So use that on command tracks to combine onto one channel. The TIU will just think things are normal and you look at it like a block system. If you draw down one loop, both will suffer though because they're on the same TIU channel.

 The best is to just get another TIU. I have four. I still run in normal mode and not super mode. My TIUs power different layouts. The same remote will control any engine on any track of mine.