Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker This can get real challenging under DCC control where the head end loco is controlled by one person, and the helper by another, with no direct control between the two. If the helper tries to go too fast, they can pu***he cars off the track. If the helper goes too slow, they can cause the train to stretch out and 'stringline' off the track on a curve. Pretty much the same thing that happens on the prototype. [/quote] Randy, With DCC, you'd just do an "on the fly" consist the 2 loco's together and be controlled by 1 person, not 2. And incidentially, this is how it's done with the Prototype too, the lead loco's crew would be controlling the additional Loco's (even if they had crews) via the MU system, the other loco's crews would be along for the ride until the point the needed to split from the train and begin their own journey. Now Steam prototypes are different, they did indeed have seperate crews who operated each engine of the train and it did get tricky trying to coorinate speeds between leads, mids and helpers. Incidently, there is no set number of cars required for multiple engines, sometimes it's much more cost effective to add a loco to a train to move it to another location than to send it alone. hence you will sometimes see two or three loco's on the front of a small 10-15 car train. Now to answer the original poster question about dummy's (MR related), there was a time when a powered engine cost more than an unpowered one, so people would run a powered Engine and several cheap unpowered Dummy's to simulate long trains. But now, Dummy's and powered units cost about the same, so most people just buy more powered units.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community