Hello Railfans,
Im just getting back into my HO gauge trains, got a new nephew I want to put somthing
together for. Where do I find Dummy Engines? or where can I find the Parts to make Dummy Engines.
I just purchased an Athearn GP38-2 Norfolk Southern and I would love to find matching dummies
to go with it. Ive been all over the internet and I must not be looking in the right places, because im not
finding what Im looking for … Any Help?
You need model railroader forums for this.
Rodney
I don’t know how many new models come with dummies these days, new power packs and other systems kinda made them obsolete. But you might want to check some sites for local hobby stores by you and see if there are any listed, maybe the manufacturers themselves offer them still.
Dummy engines came along at a time when it was very difficult to get two engines (even models of the same engine from the same model manufacturer) to run together. Now particularly since the advent of DCC it’s much easier to get engines to run together so dummies are pretty rare. A few of the older Athearn dummies can still turn up at Hobby Shops and Flea Markets, but I’m not sure if Athearn even produces any dummies anymore.
Thanks for the help, when i was a kid playing with the trains DCC wasnt around,but the more ive been reading on the internet about DCC i now understand why dummy locos arent neccessary anymore.
Now im going get me some DCC Locos and a DCC controller and im gonna play trains again …hehehe
Thanks again for the help guys
Dummy engines are much easer to find today.
They are called “diesels”
I have some friends who are huge steam fans. They would love the way you replied there.
Back during the age of steam there actually were locomotives known as “dummies”…these were smaller steam engines (often geared steam such as Climax) with shrouding to make them resemble interurban/trolley type box motors. They were employed (rarely) in street trackage and industrial switching situations. The given reason for the “disguise” was that it made the engines less spooky to horses! The New Haven railroad used some in it’s Union Freight RR operations which served the Boston waterfront via street trackage…
And here I thought this was going to be a discussion about slugs.
Engines aren’t dumb, …as for some of the folks found frequenting the cab…and the ones that tell them where to go…[:-,]