Two locos, one Decoder..

[diezmon]

I've got a set of IM FT's, an A and B.  I'm thinking it would be cool to MU the B unit to the A unit and use the single decoder for both.  BUT, I don't know if a single decoder can handle the load.

NCE will handle 1 Amp (1.25 peak), but the digitrax drop-in will handle 1.5 Amp (2.0 Amps Peak).

Without testing, I'm guessing the load of two motor will exceed those numbers?  Has anyone done this kind of testing?

And yes, I know you can put a decoder in each, and do consisting that way 

[bsoplinger]

A 'modern' motor should draw about a quarter amp, max. So the issue isn't current draw.

Its how well the 2 motors (and the associated gear trains and lube and everything that determines how fast a loco goes) match each other. Generally they won't match that well. That's where you can use the fact that each loco has a decoder to match the speed of the 2 locos.

You don't have to make a consist. You can do what I call "poor man's consisting" and just program each loco to the same number once you've gotten them speed matched.