It’s not like I’m not capable of missing the point of any conversation at any time of the day; but, in this instance I’m not missing anything.
We are talking about personal choice: I discussed how I determine a loco’s speed using a simple time/distance calculation; or, you can throw money at the question.
Yes, but so are all your other locos - so if you really want things THAT tightly calibrated, you’re going to be spending all your time calibrating. Either running every loco through the timing tunnel, or updating the ‘golden’ loco and recalibrating all the rest against it, over and over. Ends up the same in the end.
I also question ‘modern’ locos changing that much - how much runnign does this take (maybe not much if you never actually maintain them), because I have 2 of my P2K Geeps that get more running than anythign else I own, mainly because they are my primary power at club shows, where they run for hour long sessions at a time (and I don;t think I’ve ever turned them around so they circle the mostly just giant oval the opposite way to even the wheel, flange, and driveline wear). Yet my other two, which never got more than a few laps of my 10x13 spare room layout, still run right along with the high mileage ones. I’ll buy that things do change, they have to, any part in friction with another part will wear over time. But I’ll also say I think this takes years, not weeks or even months, for it to be enough to be noticeable. Measured with a device that can read tenths of thousands of seconds - I’d say you’ll see a difference across multiple runs made on the exact same day, back to back.
–Randy
That tightly calibrated? I suppose my customers are more demanding than most…or they expect that when I set things up they just tend to work because I am anal about a few things…but that is just me.
What did you do before DCC? This whole idea that locos MUST run in perfect lockstep or they will not consist correctly is, in the words of the immortal Sherman Potter, Horse Puckey. I mena, I guess if you don;t want to see so much as a coupler spring jiggle when running two locos together - be my guest. That level of precision doesn’t add anything, it just takes a whole bunch of time. Obviously you do not want one loco spinning its wheels when the other hasn’t even begun to move. I’d rahter just use a good decoder with good motor control and not have to fuss with them to make them start smoothly and run through the throttle range without odd jumps or anything - which is why I use the TCS and Loksound decoders. None of my locos with those decoders has need much of any adjustment, and then only using 3 step tables, specifically just CV2 so they all start together. I don’t fool around with 28 step speed tables, there’s no need. I don’t and won’t use decoders that don’t support CV2-6-5. Mixing BEMF and non-BEMF decoders - that’s going to take a bunch of fiddling as well. It’s not worth it to me to save a couple of bucks and buy the lesser decoder.
–Randy
I wasnt in the hobby until way past the introduction of DCC.
If you want the most accurate, consistant and quickest method of speed matching, the Speed Tunnel is by far the best solution. Nuff said. How does Mr Randy know how long a loco takes for calibration with a Speed Tunnel if he doesnt use one? However, I have gone through and utilized EVERY OTHER METHOD UNDER THE SUN…but what do I know? Im just a silly kid playing with trains.
Like another poster said…you can lead a horse to water…
David B