Hello everybody new guy here. Trying to get back into it. Now my question. When I look at Ebay or even on here it says engine is a dummy. What exactly is a dummy engine. Is it just rolling stock, with no engine? I have tried to run 2 or even 3 engines in a row and they didnt do so well. Please inform me. I have done some modeling railroading on and off for a few years but this might answer my question on how to run 2 engines. [D)]
Hello and welcome. A dummy is an unpowered engine, and not a bad thing to have. I use a few dummy engines and my plan is to do what Joe Fugate does and run sound out of them, but If you are just starting out then that is too much info. Back to the basics.
In the olden days they used to recommend running dummy (unpowered) locomotives in consists because the powered locomotives were too powerful and could pull too much stuff uphill. I’m not sure this applies anymore, both in power and in being an unrealistic pull.
[#welcome][#ditto][2c]If you have an engine with a bad motor and can’t get it fixed, pull the gears and guts out and use it as a dummy.[B)]
[#welcome]
You can run more than one powered engine (called a “consist” by model railroaders); just how is one of those “it depends” answers.
I suspect you’re running in DC (where all engines on the track respond to your power pack). If so, it will depend on the engines you want to use. If they both run at about the same speed by themselves, then it will work. It’s probably a good idea to put the faster one in front, to maintain tension on the couplers, but might work either way. But if there’s a big difference in speed, it’s not going to work very well, if at all. A “dummy” is a very good (and less expensive) alternative in such cases.
In DCC, even those with large differences can be run in a consist, by changing some of the settings in one or both engines, to “speed match” them.
I sometimes run a consist of 5 F7’s (3 A units and 2 B units). The A units are all powered, and the B units are old locomotives that were once powered but have been stripped of their moters and gears. This way it looks like I have a lot of head-end power for that long freight. Another thing I’ve done is have 2 A units and 1 B unit (A-B-A) Up front and 1 A unit and a B unit (A-B) bringing up the rear as helpers. Only the sharpest eyed veiwers realized that the 2 B units were dummies.
HUH???
I still have a dummy unit that I use. It’s a gutted P2K GP30 that tags along with my trainman GP38-2. My reason for removing the drivetrain is that I wanted to upgrade an old Athearn bb unit (the p2k drive is sort of a clone of the older athearn drive). But since Atlas made my 38-2’s obsolete with theirs, I bought one, and retired the whole fleet of athearns(all 5 of them).
Dave
Stillgrande has it wrong. In the old days, model trains were short and didn’t need the added power of multiple locomotives. It was cheaper to include a dummy engine to make the train “impressive.” To me, the routine use of excess engines verses for the given train length is rediculous. OK, hit me!
Mark
Up until the advent of really smooth running engines like Atlas and Kato in the eighties/nineties, it was almost impossible to get two engines to run together at the same speed, even if they were the same model from the same manufacturer…at least unless you wanted to do a lot of trial-and-error fiddling with resistors and such. So, since real diesels tended to run in consists of two or more (or permanently ran together like A-B F-units with drawbars between them) modellers would use a powered engine and a dummy engine together. As Mark says, model trains are usually shorter than real ones, so often one engine was enough to pull a normal model train.
<>Also, one nice thing about a dummy is that you get an entire body, with handrails, window glazing etc., so if you want to change an engine from one railroad to another, you can just get a dummy of the railroad you want and swap out the dummy chassis for a powered one. Nice if you are changing eras or area you’re modelling - or just like a change of pace now and then !!
I model Conrail in 1978, with all the predecessor, leased, run-through, and new power you could see 20 different versions of paint schemes on the locos. So I plan on using Athearn BB dummies to cheaply acquire that diversity.
Hey, Robbie, having a dummy can be a bonus if you are using DCC. If you use motor control decoders in the power units and between them set a dummy loaded with a sound decoder and a couple of speakers! Program some accelleration/deceleration into the power but not the sound so that you can rev up a notch or two before it starts to move. I program (ops mode)them separately but with the same number. Mine sounds great! Enjoy! jc5729
I just wish they would offer some diesels (Dash 7’s, 8’s and 9’s) in N scale w/Santa Fe and/or BNSF liveries:(!
Roger
Thanks for the help. I was just wondering about that and would have never thought off taking the motor out at all. Thanks again for all of your input. [;)]
[:)]Your welcome[:I]