DCC Distributed Power

[Repairman87]

Hey folks,

I was trying to run some distributed power on my layout for fun with limited success.

It worked fine on straights and curves but going thru switches was was almost always a derailment. With the back unit pushing it puts a little to much tension on the consist of cars I guess

I could always use a dummy on the end but it doesnt seem the same.

Anybody have any luck trying this?

[cspmo]

I do this all the time with my unit coal train. I weight my 15 Athearn BethGons more than NMRA recommend. I use one Proto SD60 on the front,& one Proto SD60 as the DP no problems so far.

[Pennsy58]

You may try raising the start voltage or altering the top voltage for the rear engine slightly. It may be driving the cars forward instead of pushing the cars. In other words, the rear engine is runnig a bit to fast compared to the front engine when in consist.

[Repairman87]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was running just a mixed consist so car weight was probably a big factor.

I will also change the start voltage to see if it helps too.

I have two locos that I put (could afford) sound into. It is so cool to hear the first set go by then quiet down then the DP unit on the back growl as it goes by. I could do that all day long! Just ask my wife!

[rrinker]

If the locos are close in operation, you can probably get by with tweaking the start, mid, and top voltage setttings in the decoders to get them to run the same speed. If your DCC system allows Ops Mode programming, it's gets REAL easy to do, just start both locos running ont he same track but uncoupled, and adjust one of them so they remain the same distance apart. If you find you can't get them to match closely with just the start, mid, and top settings, you might have to go so far as to use the speed table in one or both to get matching performance.
Car weight and coupler asjustment is important, but you can't have the mid-train unit either pushing to hard to holding beack the head-end power.

-_Randy