Together or separate?

[Mr. S.]

Hello and Happy Holidays,

Been enjoying working on my basket case American Flyer 370 and 371 diesels.  I think I want to lash them up for longs drags but what should I do?  Keep their motors and reverse units running separate, or wire the motors together (like a dual motor locomotive) with a tether between the two and disable one reverse unit?  They both run great and creep real nice either way so they're good runners...of course I converted the 370 to couplers.

Any harm in keeping the motors electrically separate?

Thanks!

[Major]

It is tough to run multiple Flyer power units together having to rely on the mechanical reverse units to keep them in sync.  If you converted to electronic e-units you probably could pull it off without a tether between them.  I did this on an American Models DC powered ABA ALCO set with two powered units when I converted them to run on AC. While it is not totally fool proof it has proved to be very satisfactory. 

At least with the electronic e-units you could always run them independently when you wanted to.

[Mr. S.]

I see what you're saying but I thought I would just lock them out to go in one direction, one running forward and one running backward...but thanks for that idea.

 

What's a good source for electronic reverse units for Flyer (or Lionel for that matter)?

[gunrunnerjohn]

I use the Dallee #400 for a dual-engine unit here, works great.

 

http://www.dallee.com/E_Units.htm

[Major]

As you said you could just lock the reverse units and run them together.  This is no different than running a single locomotive with dual motors.  Most locomotives that have dual motors are not perfectly  matched in speed any way.  I have operated my GP7s the same way as you suggested with no problems.