I’m relativly new to the model railroad scene and am in the process of planing an N scale layout. I would like to free lance model a 1950’s, coal hauling, mountain road with lots of big steam articulates, 2-6-6-2’s and alike i also plan on running my layout on DCC. Iv’e seen footage of the N&W running double header coal trains with helpers on the rear. and would like to emulate that on my layout. My question is do i need and extra “crew” person to run that helper or can i simply run the train engines on point and helper on DCC as a consist. Is that possible? What problems could occur?
Any help would be appriciated
Thanx in advance Stuart South Australia.
hello stuart S A… peter from Q L D just consist the locos to the lead loco number… i use dugitrax its very simple put the lead loco on to rhs throttle ( dt400 ) put second loco on L H S throttle press consist its done then put the helper loco on L H S throttle press consist now you have all three locos running as one just be carefull when pushing if front loco stalls crash if rear loco stalls crash again keep speed to slow and you will be ok… ps send pm if you want more info
One of the really nice things about DCC - speed matching locos. If you get them all running same speed, should be no problem running helpers as a consist. I do it that way with a Detroit Edison coal train, here is a short video of how it looks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3o4NnfB4xI
And if you have a friend that likes to run, you can make it a second crew.