Creating a Lash up. Where are the DUMMIES?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I was out watching our local UP's in action with my four year old son yesterday and he asked a great question in which the answer was over his head. Every REAL train we saw had more than one engine of course. Most had four and some had five. Many had two or three engines being used faced "backwards." His question to me was, "Why don't we have lots of engines at once."

Good question. To make a Lionel lash up of say four or five engines, say SD-90's or GP-38's you be put in the poor house at $400+ each. Not to mention that you'd have to follow the TMCC instructions to create a lash up (bothersome at best).

So MY question is, "Where are the DUMMY units for SD-90s and others? I have found several "F-unit" dummies on eBay but there are no choices in the new Lionel "catalog" to even buy an engine as a dummy unit. Weird.

[Jim Duda]

You may have answered your own question:
To make a Lionel lash up of say four or five engines, say SD-90's or GP-38's you be put in the poor house at $400+ each.

Personally, I think at least one (usually more) dummies would be purchased with every power unit...

Jim Duda

[Big_Boy_4005]

Interesting question Jack. The last dummy freight engine I remember was the BN SD-40, that was sold to compliment the BN limited set back in 1991. After checking an old guide book, I see that they made a couple more after that to go with the last of the limited sets, but that was all I could find. That was only Lionel, but I don't recall anyone else making any except WILLIAMS (but that may not help you anyway).[;)]

[Anonymous]

MTH has been offering dummy versions of their engines for the past several catalogs. I recently picked up a Seaboard GP30 dummy. One drawback...it has no lights. I had to install lights myself. Williams also offers dummies. I bought power and dummy versions of the Williams Seaboard and ACL GP9's.

John Harding

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all! And BB knows better than anyone why I want LIONEL to make dummies. Well Big_Boy I guess I will have to bite the bullet and go with MTH or the others because until Lionel understands that for every engine they make powered, they must make a choice for a dummy unit, I'll just be stuck! Thanks again guys.

[Jeff78rr]

The non-powered units are always sold out first- right now, though, you can find SD60M's in UP, and AC6000's in UP from MTH still available in their product locator.

Check it out- thanks,

Jeff

[FJ and G]

An idea I've tossed around before would be to have a simple, not-prone-to-breakage clutch installed to disengage the locomotive's gears in order to create a dummy unit from a powered unit. The gear might possibly disconnect the motor as well so that no amps are drawn, except, perhaps for lighting. I'm sure this can be done.

Why is this a good idea?

IMO, you won't need to purchase any more dummies (some dummies are pretty expensive) and with the flip of the manual clutch, you could have a dummy or another powered unit when you need it.

Another advantage of the clutch is that you could disengage the locomotive so that when it is parked on a powered track, it's not drawing current.

The manual clutch could have an automatic clutch option if running in command control.

Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

Hello David and welcome. You were one of the few that was always nice to my family on the OGR forum. I hope you stick around here. You have a wonderful idea. Present it to the people who can make it happen! I'd buy them! And thanks to all the others for their suggestions. You guys are great! I think I'll be looking at MTH and Williams now.

[mrd4747]

I have also wondered about that. Not only $400 a pop, but I just don't need that much muscle. I am adding dummies (slowly) to my roster, just so I can create a great looking lashup.

I have checked the Weaver site and just about all of their diesel line up includes a dummy option (GP-38, U-25, VO1000, RS-3, RSD4/5) so they will probably get more my business.