DOES A MTH PREMIER PASSENGER CAR WITH AN INCANDESCENT LIGHT STRIPE DRAW MORE AMPS THAN A 4 BAYONET BULB WEAVER CAR?

Probably pretty similar, of course it also depends on what bulbs are in the Weaver car.  I can tell you that each of the 18V bulbs in newer MTH Premier passenger cars draws around 75 milliamps.  So, a car with six bulbs with 18V track voltage will be drawing about .45 amps.  The 11 cars will be drawing around 5 amps total.  I note that some 18" Premier cars have six bulbs, and some have five, so that would change the numbers.  Also, dome cars and the like will frequently have more bulbs.

I would imagine two engines with smoke will push you up to around 8 amps or more total.

Thanks for the info John.  Would 8 amps be safe on a MTH Z-4000?  What can it handle?

If there's nothing else on the channel, you're fine.  At our club, there is frequently more than one consist on a power district, so keeping the power down is a key requirement.

Thank you John.  I am assuming what you are referring to as nothing else on the channel is an MTH TIU with nothing else on it besides my train on a variable voltage side?  Unfortunately my club does not run DCS and I would be getting the full 21 volts per side to run conventional.

Shouldn't be a problem if you have one of the transformer outputs dedicated to one train in conventional mode.