Model Railway Forum

hi everybody can anyone tell me how many locos i can run and have stationary with my hornby elite controller with a four amp power pack i will have seven circuits running plus sidings and stations with standing locos and dont want to overload my system your comments will be most welcome regards bob clifford

Hornby say 10 locos running at the same time on the 4 amp supply. I think you should be able to run a few more if they aren't hauling long trains or running flat out. The overriding factor is how many can YOU control. 3 is my maximum.

Stationary locos take very little power, sound locos a bit more.

The Elite only puts 3 of those 4 amps onto the track, the other amp goes for accessories. How many locos depends upon the load those locos impose, whether standing load of a sound decoder, lights or running load from a light engine or fully loaded train tackling a gradient.
You either need to do some simple sums to calculate total current used in a typical running scenario or simply suck it and see. Does your controller trip out under full load conditions or is it coping.
If it is tripping then you need to consider splitting the layout into power districts noting that each district can only cope within its own limits depending upon how many locos are in that area, so each district needs a bit of planning to spread the load. Each district can then have its own 4-amp supply all of which is available to the track if required.

RAF96 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:21 am The Elite only puts 3 of those 4 amps onto the track, the other amp goes for accessories....

This is not true. Hornby clarified this point some time ago. 4 amps is available to the track.
Quote from the Elite manual sort of confirms this

"The Elite is supplied with a 4 amp transformer.
This provides the Elite with the possible capability
of running up to 10 locomotives at any one time.
However this quantity may vary depending on the
current draw of each locomotive.
Please note, if the AUX OUTPUT connection is used,
less power will be available for driving locomotives."

I stand corrected. I likely misread the manual as saying that the 1-amp available for Aux output was taken off the 4-amps total output leaving the rest for the track.

The early Elite manual does say that it provides 3 amps to the tack and that 1 amp is reserved for accessories. I always thought this was wrong and later manuals amended the power available figures.

Although Elite can handle as many as 9999 individual addresses...
Reading on in the manual and referring back to the OPs question, there is a finite limit of 64 active locos. This also reads across to Railmaster which can be worked round by arranging locos into groups each group limit being 64 locos.
In use Elite loco 65 will drop a previous loco out of the group according to the rules stated in the manual.

when I went DCC, I never considered anything Hornby.

thanks for the replys i will not have all my locos on the track only those im running and only a
certain amount standing in stations /sidings and passing loops just wanted to make sure i was not overloading my controllers capacity regards bob