Consisting with the MRC prodigy Advance???

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

So last night I finally got my layout back up and running after being down for about 5 weeks. I had to do some scenery stuff. I started running my trains again and all was going well.

I decided to finally attempt to run 2 locomotices together as a single unit. I carefully followed the simple instructions on the back of the hand held controller. Everything works fine…except…

it only works correctly IF i have BOTH locomotives facing the same direction. When I tried to connect the locomotives with the cabs facing in opposite directions, they would play “tug of war” when I assigned them a consist number and tried to run them.

What am I doing wrong?

Michael

2

Not sure how the Prodigy Advance handles this, but with command station consisting on Digitrax, both units must be moving in the same physical direction. That means the last command each unit gets should tell it to move in the direction you want the consist to move in. FOr example:

Put both units on the track, back to back the way you want them to run. Select the lead unit, run it forward. Select the trailing unit, run it backwards (so it MOVES in the same direction as the other unit). NOW consist them together - they should run in the same direction now and not fight each other.

–Randy

3

The way rrinker explained is how I do it with the PA. Set the engines directions first, then consist.

4

OK, Thanks guys. I’ll give that a try.

5

From the PA manual (not verbatim):

  1. Press CONSIST key until “Cons SET” flashes on the display. Press enter.
  2. Enter a consist number (1-127) at the “Cons #” prompt. Press enter.
  3. Enter loco address at the “Add Loco” prompt. Press DIRECTION key if you want to reverse loco’s direction (default is forward). Press enter.
  4. Repeat step 3 for each additional loco you wi***o add. When all locos have been added, press enter at the “Add Loco” prompt.

To run the consist, use the consist number instead of the loco addresses.

I hope this helps you out.

-Joe

6

Meyblc, it really helps if you read the manual, the instructions at the back of the handheld are more like a reminder. I have a PA and is really easy to use.

7

I am consistently having problems consisting my pair of BLI E7’s. The only thing that works for sure is setting them both to the same road number after I set CV29 to 34 on one and 35 on the other. Now if I could just figure out how to disable the lights on the rear unit.

8

RedLeader,

I’m not sure how to take your post, either as a suggestion or pointed criticism. For the sake of avoiding an argument, I’ll assume it was a suggestion.

I have read, and re-read the PA manual cover to cover. The engines that I was attempting to consist were brand new (Dec 2004 release) P2K GP38’s. No matter how many times I attempted to la***hem up, they would pull against each other. I followed the advise of several people here who suggested that I ensure that each locomotive is traveling in the intended direction prior to building the consist. This didn’t work either.

What I found was that with the PA, you can consist locomotives using what they call “old consist”. All you do is enter the lead unit, then each unit after it. You do not assign it a consist number. The entire consist is controlled by the lead units address.

Thanks to everyone who attempted to assist me with this.

9

Glad you figured out how to make it work. Was also going to suggest that you determine if one of the locos was CV set with polarity reversed.