I want to MU three 6-axle engines from Atlas, perhaps (as an alternative) 2 from Atlas and one from Tower 55. The real important thing for me is the sound. Because I simply want to run one train without switching, I don’t think DCC is necessary for me. But I still have questions:
Is it possible to use the full sound options of the Atlas and Tower 55 engines without adopting the digital mode ? (just using the analog DC)
Is is possible to MU efficiently 3 engines in analog DC (without the one pushing and the other pulling too hard, you see what I mean)
What sounds best: having one engine with sound and the two others without, or having all three with sound ??
2: Not likely, considering the different brand names and decoders involved.
3: When engines are MUd using DCC, only the horn and bell are muted on trailing units because you would (normally) want the sound of the motors in all 3 units to be on. You can’t do that with DC control.
You generally can’t MU a sound-equipped loco and non-sound with DC, and use the sounds other than the motor. Most of the control schemes to operate the horn and bell on sound locos running on DC involved reversing the polarity. Naturally the DC locomotives will operate erratically as the track polarity is flipped back and forth to send the signals to the sound unit.
I don’t believe the sound decoders in the Tower55 units even have function access in DC mode - I think all you get are the motor sounds and the random noises like air letoff and compressor. You can do horn and bell on QSI locos from BLI, Atlas, and LL. ESU sound decoders require their interface box to do more than motor/chuff and random sounds when operating on DC.
In addition, sound-equipped locos running on DC generally do not start moving untilt he voltage gets fairly high - often at least half-way up the scale. At that point, just about any non-sound DC loco is already going to be moving fairly quickly. As such, they won’t work when coupled together, the non-sound units will always be pushing or pulling the sound one. Or spinning their wheels.
While I agree with the other posts, I have a question for you? With all the extremely affordable DCC systems on the market right now, why would you even consider spending serious cash on DCC and sound equipped locomotives when you can’t explore the reason you spent that much? Keep im mind the Bachmann DCC system which can be had for less than $60 will MU locomotives, run analog locomotives and give you separate function control for the sounds. Also, for around $150 you can move up to several expandable systems from companies like NCE and Digitrax.
Honesly if you want to take advantage of these locomotives, my suggestion would be to step up to a DCC system. I gaurantee you won’t regret it!