I have found it difficult to run matched diesels on my DC board as my locos are all different. I am advised that the best way is to simply purchase identical locos if I want to do matching but I think there might be another approach for which I would appreciate input. In the July issue of MR (page 53) is a picture of the “Laker” which seems to be followed by a power car. Long ago I can recall seeing passenger trains and some freight trains being pulled by a similar combination. I have not seen working power cars at train shows nor in any ads in MR but I have to assume that in real life these were matched to the main engines for increasing pulling power. Does anyone have any information on this subject - are power cars available for model railroading? - all I have seen are references to “dummy” cars.
a power car generates and supplies power to the train for lighting, heating, air conditioning etc. it has nothing to do with tractive effort to pull the train.
as for matching locomotives, i have never had much success in the last 50 years mixing different makes. i even tried adding resistors to balance the speeds but they only played well together within a certain speed range. perhaps others have had better luck but i gave up
my layout is straight DC as well. From my experience it is the Kato and Atlas locomotives -in HO- that run at the same speed. It is not uncommon for me to mix and match them as mid train helpers, pushers or on the head end. Mind you all my locomotives have been purchased in the last 5 years. Also the Atlas engines produced by Roco run at a totally different speed then the ones made by Atlas in China.
You may be mildly surprise of how close different brands of locomotives run in DC.
As examples Kato/Spectrum,Kato/Atlas,Atlas(Roco)/Model Power RS11(old),Kato/Stewart(newer drives).Of course the Atlas/Kato drives play well together with Kato and Atlas drives.
The hardest to speed match is the LL P2K locomotives due to the gear ratio of the month they used…
Its hard to get a Athearn BB/RTR engine to run with any brand other then its self…
The Genesis seems to play well with some Spectrum’s and some Kato and Atlas drives.
As long as the locos are running within a range of + or - 15% of each other, they can run together safely, just keep the faster locomotive(s) at the front.
Athearn BB and RTR locos, if remotored with Mashima/A line motors will match Kato & Atlas pretty closely. The early P2K BL-2 and GPs will also match the above within that range as well.
You can also experiment with resistors (in series with the motor) to slow faster units down. They may not match in all speed ranges, but you can usually find a range that works.