Powerhouse 180w Question

You can if you run them through a Lionel TPC 400. I did, it was a ton of power. A derailment at full voltage yielded serious arcing and spot weld marks on track and wheels. I dialed the track voltage down to 14v and it seemed to reduce the arcing/ welding but that seemed to defeat the purpose of having two bricks.

I ended up selling one brick as I realized  one would power my 10x16 layout with 3 trains just fine by itself, and, no more sparks during a derailment.

 Having said that,I never had any damage to electronics as the breakers on the bricks pop instantly, but using one brick alone reduces the risk even further.

I do it with two 135's in conventional mode.  I would do it with 3 if I ever needed the power, but it hasn't come up yet. 

The TPC300 & TPC400 give you the capability to connect up to two PowerMasters.

I use two PowerHouse 180s but they are spread across 8 power districts (4 each).  One goes through a TPC400 so that I can run either command or conventional engines on the mainline.

Whether you run them in parallel or like I do, it's a good idea to add fuses in between the PowerHouses and the track.  See diagram below.

Hope this helps,

George

I prefer to upgrade passenger cars to LED's and only run a maximum of 10 amps to an individual power district.  If you lose the draw of all the incandescent bulbs, you can usually run at least three consist's on a single PH180 brick.  On our club layout we have four bricks for the mainlines and two for sidings and accessories.  So far, that's worked out fine.

In the very early days of the TPCs[400s] I parallelled both a pair of 135 PoHos and later a pair of 180 units when running long,lighted passenger trains in another power district. I have a very small layout now and never do that. I have one 180 linked to a TPC 400 per district now.

I found that the  problem with "super power["[360 watts] in a single district is pitting of tinplate rails upon a derailment without regard to fast-acting breakers fuses,etc. I only experienced it once when a 30 hopper car "stringlined" and in a few seconds I got fire and brimstone and some pitting.

Personally I don't recommend more than 10 amps per  district as Gunrunner John suggests.

Thanks for all the information I think I know how to proceed now. My layout covers approximately 260 square feet and runs two main lines side by side. All of the sidings carry the operating accessories. The other main concern is running two long lighted passenger trains which I now know how to handle that. Thanks again to all who responded.