In all the layouts I see in model railroader, I am curious when you see a train with 3 or 4 locomotives are they all powered or a mix of power and dummy? I have about 20 some locomotives in which about 15 are powered. Don’t have a lyout built yet, finishing the room now, but what is the protocol these days, run a 3-4 unit train with all power even though it doesn’t need that much or a mix of power and dummy. Probably a dumb question, but have always wondered.
I don’t have any dummies because a locomotive isn’t worth a twit if it can’t move itself. Often, in model-railroad practice, dummy locomotives are cost effective if the presented lash-up doesn’t need the power presented. Nevertheless, it seems to me that dummy locomotives are generally unavailable.
Mark
I have a couple of dummies that I salvaged from old powered engines whose drive trains didn’t work any more. They can be used in consists, which is nice if you want that big-consist, 4-locomotive look. My layout is really too small for that, though, so they mostly sit in a box.
I have 1 dummy F7B unit, also. I like the ABA consists, so this fits in nicely. A B unit wouldn’t run around by itself anyway, so having it be a dummy doesn’t bother me. Also, a B unit doesn’t need lighting, and best of all, it makes a fine large sound box for a sound-only decoder.
You might also use a dummy engine to hold a video camera, which would be hard to get into a powered unit.
Well if you want dummies to a large part of your railroad here are a few pointers: First the amount of dummies you have in a train depends on what the train does. If it is a through train running from one staging yard to the other, then only enough motor that is needed to run the train can go on the front. All the helpers in the middle and end can be dummies. BUT if you are going to break down or put together a train at a visible yard, then one motor power loco must be in every set of helpers to move them off the middle or end of the train and then to a holding track. The next factor in if you should use dummies or not is scale and your layout practices. If you have a smaller scale like Z, N, or HO you can have, depending on the length of the train, (First number: powered locos. Second number: total locos at front) 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4 and the rest of the helpers in the middle can be all dummies or 1 motor loco to the rest of a set of helpers. If you have a larger scale like S, or O you most likely will have to have 4/4 if front because the cars are heaver. Also if you use lose coal, gravel, or etc. you will most likely have 4/4 in any scale.
On my Santa Fe, 1989, I have two unit DCC consists set up which generally remain together for road trains. This accounts for 176 units. I also have some single units. However, I do like the looks of more power on some trains, especially grain trains, so I have 16 units that were powered and failed for various reasons. Instead of dumping them, I remove motors and gears, clean up the trucks and wheels and add them into a consist. Of course DCC doesn’t know about them, so the consists are affected as far as the control system. When the trains arrive at destination or a staging yards and the session is ended, the dummies are removed for another day. One comment, I would not use a dummy with plastic wheel sets.
Bob
Curious as to where you got this information. What’s the source?
I’m probably the only one in the model railroad club that runs dummy locos in lashups. The club has HO and N scale layouts and I run trains on both. The dummies I have are ex-powered units that became dummies after frustrated efforts at converting them to DCC or failing to get them to ‘speed match’.
On my ‘N’ scale layout, all my locomotives are powered. Since I add weight to my freight cars to NAMRA standards, I need all the units to be powered. I do have some old Bachman units that do not run very well and I am considering “gutting them” and putting sound in them. This may be an idea you may want to consider for your dummies. If your layout plan does not have any steep grades( 1% or higher) then you should not have any problems using the dummies.If you are going to use DCC on your layout, then I would recommend buying all powered locomotives. You can speed match them and the result is very reallistic.I hope this helps you.
madmodeler
When you Spend the first 7 years of your as a professional trainiac, minus the railroad, you usually want to read about, and get jealous about, various model railroads. My grandparents bought me a few model railroad issues and GMR issues. I learned about half I know from those mag.s . The rest I learned from spending countless hours on the internet reading what other people did. By the time my dad and I had started to build the table for the trains I had knowledge for how to do everything on the railroad except wiring. Throughout all this the only thing I have not known anything about is WHERE CAN I FIND STYRENE ??? If I could find it I could do most of the MRR Mag projects. Thank You
Could never understand why someone runs a Dummy loco. They are useless to me.
Mike
I can’t tell the differance from my power unit’s to my dummy units. They sure look good on a small layout though.
Well Mike, I have been doing it since 1957, and they fill out a consist very nicely to allow a fairly long lashup. Useless to you, not to me. On the Santa Fe in 1989, two unit consists were the minority in road service. Same on my railroad. Since I have over 200 total powered units, I could not see limiting myself to 2 unit only road consists, and certainly in HO there is no need for 3 or 4 powered units on a road train. My railroad is three decks, wide curves, and the dummies fit in fine. As I mentioned earlier, all but a few of my dummies are diesels that started off powered and failed for one reason or another.
Bob
Dummy locos are used when a very small amount of locos are needed to run a train, and the owner doesn’t want to pay for 100% powered locos when he doesn’t need them.
Depends. Every one likes powered locomotive models more than dummy ones. Stands to reason, a powered model is always cooler than a dummy. The only reason anyone runs dummy locomotives is cost, the dummy is cheaper than a powered model.
In HO, two powered units have enough traction to pull a very long train, say 60 cars or more. Many of us like the look of ABBA sets of hood units, or half a dozen Geeps pulling a long train. The “lots of loco’s” look works even if some of the units are dummies. So, sometimes we run dummies. On the other hand in HO many of the big lashups are in fact all powered. Depends on what you have.
In my case, I had an ABBA lashup with powered A units and dummy B units. Even though it could pull very long trains, I upgraded the dummy B units to full powered units after taking a bit of friendly ribbing down at the club. As I remember, the upgrade wasn’t all that costly. I was able to purchase a couple of used powered A units and put the drives under the dummy B units.
You pays your money and you takes your chance.
Dummy locomotives IMHO are a waste of money and time. I have only two dummy locomotives. Both are F7b “snails” for the two rotary snowplows in the MofW equipment.
All other locomotives are powered and can pull a train. Dummy locomotives are also track wasters in that they take up space that could be used for powered locomotives.
If you are running a train that needs only one locomotive then just use a single unit.
I have several unit trains of 50 cars and use all powered units to pull them. Usually the coal and grain trains are pulled by three units either EMD SD40-2’s or GE U30C’s
The PFE Ice bunker reefer train gets a four unit set of F7’s in A-B-B-A and all powered.
Well, since a couple of you didn’t read my post throughly or didn’t understand it. My dummies were not purchased, they were powered engines that failed for some reason. As I said, with all the fixed DCC consists I have set up with 2 powered diesels per consist, the dummies are eye candy. You can throw yours in the trash, I will use mine. I will refrain from telling you that my way is the only way and you can refrain from remarks about people who use dummies.
Geez
Bob
Some good explanations here. Guess I was wrong. It seems that there is a need for unpowered loco’s.
Mike
Best not to post one’s opinion if one doesn’t want to hear from those who disagree.
Mark
The purpose for dummy units is obviously appearance. When we want to run a lash up that is bigger than we really need, a dummy fills the bill. On my layout, I don’t need more than two powered units to pull my longest train (about 30 cars) up the one grade I have. Since most of my road diesels are F-units, it was quite common to see ABA and ABBA lashups and a dummy works well in this situation. Now in the days when I was running Athearn BB F-units, dummies were common and readily available. With higher end equipment, dummies are rarely offered. Usually the choices are DC or DCC and sound or no sound. It’s understandable why the manufacturers would be reluctant to do the fine detailing on these higher end locos but sell them at the lower price that the consumer would expect to pay for a dummy. Right now the only dummy in my fleet is a nice looking E7 and I can’t even remember right now who offered that. If dummies were made available at a decent price, I would add more to my fleet.
I understand why someone would use dummy units, but I don’t have any myself. I probably will in the future, though.
Just watch out, Dstarr, or else your locos might start singing disco!
MadSinger