My drawbar coupled FTs have the same address. There's no reason not too. I can't easily separate them in the middle of operation. There's noot much to worry about in terms of lights, there's none on the B unit. Only one has sound, so I'm not worried about 2 horns and 2 bells, although if I did put a sound decoder in the B unit, I would just turn the bell and horn volume to 0, or just disable those F keys. No sense wasting a consist address.
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I have done that with a F3 A/B F7 B/A.
The F3 had a decoder in the A that ran the motor and speaker in the A and motor and speaker in the B.
THe F7 had a decoder in each for motor and speaker.
I did it both ways. Always as ABBA. Only three decoders to deal with but CV consisting was nice. I like the different sounds.
The F3 A/B both had the same sound though.
Rich
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I use the lead locomotive road number for the consist so it makes sense to use the same for addressing both the A- & B-unit.
Tom
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If the locos are always together, and if you'll remember they have one address, then there is no disadvantage to having one address (and a key advantage -- you don't have to worry about the system "losing" the consist as sometimes happens).
I use both. I have an E8 A & B. They will never run separately, so I have them with the same number.
I also have a consist of two locomotives that will sometimes run separately. It takes about 5 seconds to make the consist or run them separately.
York1 John
CGW121 Creating a consist .with Digitrax is extreemly easy with Digitrax as well. I do not care about sound as I do not use it. I see no advantage to consisting
Creating a consist .with Digitrax is extreemly easy with Digitrax as well. I do not care about sound as I do not use it. I see no advantage to consisting
Consisting is perfect for when a train has two or more locos that get joined together to drive that specific train but the locos can be used independently when required with their normal address.
Ron
PennCentral99 tstage would it make sense to just program both decoders to the same address? if you plan on keeping them together, sure. don't forget you might need to change CV 29 for the rear loco as to “normal forward“ Terry
tstage would it make sense to just program both decoders to the same address?
would it make sense to just program both decoders to the same address?
if you plan on keeping them together, sure. don't forget you might need to change CV 29 for the rear loco as to “normal forward“
Terry
Terry,
The FTB-units had a definite front and rear because of the exhaust stacks: It was at the rear of the A-unit and towards the front of the B-unit. So, AFAIK, you would never flip around and operate an FTB like you could an F3B or F7B. Since they will never be operated separately it just seemed to make sense to program them to the same address rather than two destinct addresses.
All,
I'm using a motor-only decoder in both units: A TCS MC2P-UK. The FTA & FTB operate very smoothly and evenly programmed to different addresses; therefore I know they will operate the same whether consisted together or programmed to the same address.
That's my reason for consisting, too. I only want one horn to sound.
On my Lenz system, I can use any loco address in the consist or the consist address to run all locos, but if I use the front engine address, I get the sound and headlight behavior I want.
I don't have to remember consist addresses, and if I break up a consist I don't have to reprogram the decoders.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
An advantage to consisting is that the headlights will operate correctly in either direction, etc. Since it is so easy to build a consist with NCE (which I think I remember that you are using), I don't see a good reason not to do so.
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I use the same address on all locomotives I run together. They run very welll for me.
Greetings -
I have a Stewart FTA-B consist that has the exact same decoders installed in each locomotive but each programmed to different addresses. Since the NYC operated the FTA-Bs together with a draw bar, would it make sense to just program both decoders to the same address? Or, is there an advantage to having them with different addresses?
I will ultimately operate them consisted with an NYC F2 (on a Stewart F3 chassis), or maybe with another FTA-B combo for a four-locomotive consist. The B-units with the latter would be connected together with a coupler.