I am planing on using push pull for my route. My question is can i have a second decoder in my cab car with the same number of as the locos decoder on there to have the lights cordinated?
So far its the only way i can think of to run in push pull with lights on the cab car
Colin
Sure, that will work. Some decoder manufacturers make “lights only” decoders, but it would probably be cheaper to buy a low-priced engine decoder than these “gourmet” decoders. You might have to play some games to program it, like plugging it in to an actual engine so that the programming track thinks it’s correctly hooked up. Maybe your LHS has a junk pile with a toasted decoder whose light functions still work that they’d let you have.
If you always run the cars and engine together, you could simple run a pair of wires all the way through the train. Or, you could install a latching magnetic reed switch that you turn on and off with a wand. The decoder is a nicer option, though.
Ah, the glories of modern electronics…[;)]
I solve that problem with a flop switch on one axle of the lighted car. If it’s leading, the switch makes contact and the lights light. If it’s trailing, the switch ‘flops’ to the other side, the headlights go out and the markers come on.
Incidentally, my power system is analog DC, but I bet the same system would work for DCC.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Does your DCC sys support MUing? That way if you ever get another Cab Car or loco you don’t have to keep the set, just break the MU and MU the other loco to the Cab Car.
I’ve in my cab car a decoder with the same address like in the engine. And it works!
Wolfgang
You are braver than me to try a push pull in a push mode. I’d wind up pushing cars places they shouldn’t be.
OMG thats so beautiful!
What line is that saposed to be? the BN trains that run by my house used to have the candy cane stripes toatly covering the end of the cab car from top to botom (pretty sure they still do) [%-)]
Thats a very beautiful engine though and those cabcar lights are sweet! I live blocks from the tracks and used to walk with my dad to the train station every weekday morning and get a donut before school, loved watching those trains hated seeing them go. Coolest times were when it was a double header with enough cars for 3 trains with maybe 2-3 cab cars mixed in
I ended up doing some mixed C&NW & Metra bi-level trains my old HO layout (mainly CNW pass/freight with 1 metra (grey with brown & orange stripe bilevels)as I couldnt find a BN engine and the only BI level cars I could get my hands on back then were all smooth side kits IDK i guess I just liked CNW colors more [
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I run my P1K subway trains in push mode most of the time. The car on the non-powered end is the “camera car” and it has much brighter LEDs on it. The original lights burned out long ago, and they were more or less useless to begin with. I have no problems at all running in either push or pull mode. I usually just leave the bright LEDs on all the time, but I do have a small slide switch on the bottom of the frame to turn them off if I want to. I’ve got a similar switch for the camera, which is normally off.