I am going to wire 2 of these locomotives together. Essentially, I’ll be wiring the far truck of one locomotive to the other’s motor, and visa-versa, to effectively lengthen their wheel base’s and help them from stalling over crossings and turnouts. They currently still jerk and flicker a bit when running independently, but coupled together. These are DC and are closely matched in speed already.
While the actual wiring shouldn’t be a problem, I was wondering how best to conceal the wires that will be running in between the locomotives.
I’m looking to the forum for any advice on the project. Thanks.
I only have 2 and I run them together all of the time. Powering all of the frogs on the layout seems like more work than just joining the two short locomotives. I’ll install a drawbar if I need too. I’ve heard of prototype small diesels being permanently coupled, so I’ll look for pictures to see how they’re joined.
I’ll have 4 wires poking through, so it seems to me even if I use shrink tubing, the result will look bulky.
Why are you running wires from the pickups of one loco to the motor of the other loco? All you need is two wires going from the pickups of loco A to the pickups of loco B. It serves the same purpose and decreases the number of wires by half. With just the pickups joined the motor of loco B is still getting power from loco A and vise versa. I do this all the time and it works for DC and DCC alike.
I widen the coupler opening slightly to allow enough space to run a wire through on each side. In the example in the photo I also cut a couple of small notches just above the sides of the coupler pocket. The wires were run through and given enough droop to make them look like air and mu lines. It’s not hard to do and makes the job look that much better.
I have several sets of permanant MUd units including a couple of switcher sets. I research what the MU connection on the prototype engine is and use the MU cables as the jumpers between the units. If you use brass MU stands it makes it that much easier. If it is using the small diameter hoses I just use 30 gauge wire, as this wire is not usually used to provide power, it does not have enough power going through it for long enough to overheat the wire and it is not a problem. Of course I do not think you could rely on extended use of 30 ga wire to provide power to a second unit. I use DCC, and I have some units with nothing but speakers in them, and jump the speakers wires to a dummy full of speakers. Makes for a better frequency range of sound. I solder together a couple of Cal-Scale knuckle couplers and use them as the drawbar.
LION MUs his six car subway trains all of the time. With the 50 tonners, I will use draw bars to attach them to their train, probably with a locomotive at each end, and will therefore have 150’ of cars between the locomotives.
Jeffrey: Great work. Since there will now only be two wires, simulating mu lines might be the way to go. I’d be happy if my efforts turned out so well.
Paul: Your idea would be a challenge for me, but it might ultimately look even better. I hadn’t stopped to think that some may use a dummy for sound, so perhaps my project is more common than I thought. I thought about making one of my units a dummy, but I have little use for the little Bachmann motor that’s in the switcher. Soldering couplers together in a good idea too.
Before you go with a “Frankenstein” approach and start hacking up some perfectly good locos, why not make sure your loco’s electrical pickups are working properly to begin with? I have this , and several Bachmann 44 ton switchers that operate over dead frogs with no issue.
I looked at the locos today, and the 70 tonners have the gap in the pilot that can accommodate the two wires just fine. I’ll even add styrene to fill the gap some, so no hacking here. I think the little side to side play in the axles and the short wheelbase tends to line up at the dead frog just perfectly to cause the problems. It happens about 25% of the time on the Shinohara 30 degree crossing. I may disassemble the trucks to see if the pickup systems are working properly. I did not do that when I removed the decoder and soldered in an Atlas light board.
They run over the crossing most of the time just fine. But a loco that can’t run over a frog at 1 mph with no flicker 100% of the time is not a perfectly good loco, IMO.
Nevertheless, the locos will be mu’d anyway since they are homely buggers and look better in pairs.
