Joe Fugate wrote the following in one of his posts:
"I also program my diesel lashups so they are double-ended. This means if I have 4422, 4333, and 4408, my operators can dial up consist 22 and run the lashup with 4422 as the front and the function keys run the lights and sound.
They can at the end of a run (such as with a turn that switches eastbound to a specific town turns, and then switches westbound back to its destination) dial up 08 and then 4408 becomes the front of the lashup and the function keys operate everything on that end of the lashup."
It’s a bit tricky to describe how to do that without pictures or lots of steps, but once you’ve done a few of them it works great and it makes my operators’ lives very easy during an op session on the Siskiyou Line. I’ll be covering how to do this in the clinic and video as well."
Does anyone know if the procedure is discribed in another post, as I could not find it?
Thanks.
I would think all you have to do is program two different consists. they’d have the same engines but different consist addresses with different directions as forward. It sounds like a good idea, I’ll try it when I’m home next.
Locomotives can only belong to one decoder consist at a time, since the consist value is stored in CV19 of the decoder. There’s only one CV19 per decoder – hence a loco can participate in only one such consist at a time!
The trick is to program a decoder consist one direction and then create a command station consist the other direction, using the decoder consist’s number as if it was a loco number and tell the command station the “loco” is running in reverse! [swg]
I do go through all the details in my how to video 3 (DCC). Like many things, it sometimes helps to actually see it done so you can really “get it”.
NCE also has the great feature now that eliminates all this fiddling. If the consist is 6315-6332-6411, simply selecting the number of the lead loco “flips” the consist around. In other words, if I select engine #6315, it’s the lead loco. If i select 6411, it’s now the lead loco. No assigning numbers to the overall consist (that’s automatic), no multiple consist numbers for the same physical set of engines. Doesn’t matter which direction each loco in the consist is pointed, etc. Forward and reverse work in relation to the lead loco selected. The only rule is: look at the lead loco, then enter its number.
NCE has done a great job with this feature … it makes running consisted locos completely intuitive. http://www.ncedcc.com
Totally cool! I knew there was a reason I was thinking I should replace my EasyDCC system with NCE … wow, what a great feature if you are a diesel guy like me. [swg]
Joe, it’s amazing how much improvement this feature makes in eliminating hassle and confusion. Whether it’s resetting trains between sessions (Rick’s layout has mostly single-ended staging, as you recall), or running the return leg on a local “turn”, it’s completely natural.
Just to chime in, I’d read about this when NCE made the upgrade available to current owners (for the astounding price of $5!). I was a bit skeptical, but it really does work just as advertised. And the way you set up a consist with NCE, you don’t even have to select a consist number, unless you want to for some reason. You just say which loco is the lead, which is the end, and which are in between (plus of course the direction of each). That’s it!