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I agree with Dave, that you have to know where you are going, where you are at, and where your rear end of your train is. You also need to pay attention to how your train is made up, specifically where's the loads and empties. Sometimes, if you have a bunch of loads behind a lot of empties you have to wait a little bit before you do things, to let the loads either <br />a)get over the crest of a hill, or b)let the loads get to the bottom of a hill (so you don't get too fast). Also, a lot depends on what type of train you have, a stack train has very little slack in it (relatively speaking), while an auto train has huge amounts of slack (I've gotten on rack trains that were bunched up that the head end has move 2 or 3 car lengths before the rear even started moving). Generally, the company wants us to use dynamic brakes, that is what they preach, so that's usually the first choice, but there are circumstances (particullarly the light on the head end/heavy on the rear) where using the train brakes is much better. It's really just a judgement matter, depending on what the terrain is (uphill/downhill, undulating, flat), what type of train it is and how heavy it is, how much dynamic braking you have (engines),wind (yep wind will have a big effect on certain trains, particullarly stacks and empty coal trains), and whether you are stopping, slowing down(and how much you have to slow down), or just maintaining whatever speed you are going. It's also a feel type of thing, every train is a little different, you can have 2 very similar trains, and one will stop on dime (figuratively) while the other you sometimes wonder if it will ever stop. Hope this helps.
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