Hello Railroaders,
I was wondering, which manufacturer’s locos could you MU together as far as the sound locos with no sound locos? Just have one sound equiped loco in a multi-unit lash-up.
Atlas says not to MU Sound and NO-Sound locos, because of the voltage differences. Does anyone run Sound and NO-Sound LOCOS on their layouts?
ANY input would be very helpful.
THANKS, Willjr
That is interesting. They must mean in DC not DCC.
In DCC I MU two Atlas SD24’s one with sound and one without.
I have several sets of F ABBA units where only one or two have sound.
I run a Broadway limited EA with a Proto 2000 EA w no sound.
In DC one would just have to put two locomotives on the track together and find out if they match speed wise and respond to the throttle in the same way. From their comment I would guess the non-sound unit is going to zoom away.
If you look at the product reviews, you will notice the the non-sound engines generally start to move with as little as 1.5 or 2 volts of power, a few may require 3 or four volts. The sound equipped engines generally require at least 5 or six volts to get started in DC mode. This means that the non-sound engine will always be spinning its wheels unless you operate both engines at 12 volts. If you want to mix and match, remove as much weight from the non-sound engine as possible. Then you will never have to clean your track. The spinning wheels will keep them nicely polished.
They are right. sound and non sound locos shouldnt be run together on DC. But it DCC there is always constant voltage to the tracks. The speed is controlled by the speed steps of the decoder. So, if the engines dont run together, you can just adjust speed steps.
Well, in MR they did an article on the Atlas Dash-8. In DCC they said not to pair the sound and no sound together.
The voltage used to operate the engines was VERY different. The issue was July of 05 on p. 92.
I would hate to spend money, and one would BLOW-UP!
Any comments?
I found the review and re-read it and I think they meant not to MU them in DC mode. I have a sound equipped Atlas B40-8W and another without in DCC that run together just fine. In fact I have them in a four unit lashup with two Kato Dash-9’s and the whole thing works great.
I even tried adding another Dash-8 to the end of the train, and I thought for sure that was going to cause trouble, but amazingly enough it works with no problems at all. I do take a lot of time to tweak the speed settings in my decoders, though, to make sure that the engines are all about the same in that regard.
Looking at an Atlas advertisement it celarly states not to MU sound and no sound eninges in DC only.
You COULD do the old railroad trick… railroads used to try to put the higher geared locomotive in front of the lowered geared engine. Maybe you could put a no sound in front of a sound engine?
This will work only for small speed differences. The voltage the sound decoder takes makes a HUGE difference. Depending which engine is heavier you will either get the soundless engine spinning its wheels or the sound engine getting dragged. Either of which will eventually wear the plating off the wheels which is not good, not good at all.[xx(]
Well, being a freshman in the DCC game, you just don’t know if they will work or not.
Also, if I run two sound engines, would the sound be,TOO MUCH SOUND???
I believe you can change the volume on the engines. I would probably more or less purchase the engines in pairs. With different road#'s.
I really have to make my purchases wisely, being that I have a NEW BABY! So money has to be spent once, and on the right equipment.
Thanks, for the input fellas,
Willjr
Im not exacly sure what you mean by that.
As far as running 2 sound locos together, I think it sounds great! Theyre not quite in sync and it gives a neat effect. If its too loud for you, sometimes you can turn down the volume simply with a screwdriver or magnet. If not it can be done by changing a couple CVs
I run a BLI AC 6000 with a Proto 2000 SD 60 that i put an NCE decoder in together. I ran them at our club one evening while they were shooting video for about 2 hours and they did fine. I was running DCC, and i hd tested them here at home and adjusted the speed of the AC 6000 to match the Proto. I believe i took the maximum speed to 190 or 200 from the factory setting of 255. It was very easy and took just a few minutes of tinkering. Hope this helps. Jim
I run two BLI sd40-2’s together on DCC they sound fantastic, and pull like a school boy!!
Ken.