Yet another use for a dummy might be building up an engine undergoing repairs. Get the EMD 567 engine from Walthers, cut the long hood off an Athearn GP7 dummy, and go to town detailing it.
One thing you shoudl be aware of is that effective tractive effort (in terms of the amount of cars a locomotive can pull) drops as your scale drops. In other words, if an HO scale SD60 can pull 50 cars, an N-scale locomotive will be lucky to pull only 15 or twenty cars. The reason for this is that the bearing surfaces cannot be made any smoother for N-scale trains than they are for HO or larger scales. Consequently, the coefficient of friction is relatively higher for the smaller scales and the force needed to move the smaller cars is proportionately higher. Only the fact that the N-scale cars are much lighter to begin with means that less force will move them, but a car weighing 1/4 the weight of an HO model may still require half the the force to moove it.
What this boils down to is this. While you may get away with using some dummy engines in HO scale, you probably would want only powered engines pulling your N-scale trains since each engine has only limited pulling capacity to begin with.
My limited experience with N scale trains is that you want all the power you can get to pull even a modest length train. I’d be willing to bet that a dummy loco would cut by 5 or 5 cars the total length of any given consist that the powered unit can pull.
My experience with N is not so limited and I agree with you. My test grade is a 24" helix with a 1.8 - 1.9% grade. The typical 1950’s era road switcher (Atlas or Kato) will pull 12-15 normal freight cars with plastic wheels up that grade. Even as I convert to metal wheels, I’ll add more power on about every 10th car or so even on trains that will never go over the helix. A dummy may serve a cosmetic purpose but at the expense of that number. The electrical demands of these locomotives while a consideration, is a minor one.
I come here to the forum and talk to youse guys…[(-D]
Tom
It’s \like running your auto… you don’t use all of your engine all of the time… and there is less wear and tear when it’s trundling along on part power.
Seperately locos can be move around DiT “Dead in Tow” or “dead in Transit”… HEY! I learnt that on this forum!
Modern computerised locos will probably work out their most efficient way of running and talk to each other without much input from the engineer.
When dummies aren’t available - what do you do? Stick around; sooner or later they will all show up on the forum! (Ha!Ha! That’s a joke.)
On a serious nature; there used to be (read: when Custer was a cadet) dummy units in N-Scale but they were usually one of the units in an AB set of E- or F- units. I never owned one of these in N-Scale but I did own a few in HO (all Athearn’s) and I can say without reservations that I NEVER OWNED A DUMMY UNIT WHICH I DID NOT EVENTUALLY GROW TO HATE. I was, admittedly, trying to save money but the expense of Excedrin more than offset the savings in equipment. It seemed that no matter what I tried to do to rectumfry the problem I could never get dummy-units to track properly in either direction; they were notorious point-pickers. Eventually I achieved multi-powered unit operation by lashing up multi-powered units from a common manufacturer.
Of course, DCC solves this problem - although getting a good curve with lash-ups from multiple manufacturers can cause one to make case-lot purchases of Excedrin.
If you absolutely, positutely insist on dummy units in N-Scale there are a couple of things which you can do. These, of course, must work from a power unit which is all, praise the Lord, that is currently available in N-Scale.
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disconnect the worm and drive shaft from the motor. This will, however, leave the worm-gear/idler-gears intact in the worm-gear towers on the trucks and this is a potential source of drag - these things are designed to move; not be pulled along. I don’t care how carefully they are designed, there is always “slop” in any gear and that “slop” will translate to friction. This leads to:
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take the worm-gears/idler-gears out of that tower; the axles in the truck are running free and the worm is spinning but isn’t connected to anything. These worm-gears/idler-gears are designed to be replaced and, exercising care when doing it, they readily just twist out - and, of course, just twist back in
AS has been said here, Dummy engines are unpowered look-alikes for the sole purpose of reducing COST of same. Genesis F-7’s are all powered. BLI’s are not. Stewart sold chassis’ separately to power their empty 'B’s.
IN OUR WORLD: 2 engines will pull most trains. 3 is a practical max. since our models are all 'empty’s, wheras the protype’s are generally ‘full’ . Pulling 'empty’s is unprofitable.
Enterprising modelers can use 'empty’s for added electrical pickup, or better sound baffling. Putting a speaker in an empty dummy keeps the illusion and improves the sound.
You could go looking for boxcars or tenders. You may find a shell that could be used to disguise a diesel. you may have a steamer that can’t pull much, An extra “powered” tender may help some. You simply find a shell that will fit over the loco mecanism.
Unpowered B units used to be a staple of Nscale from Bachmann or Trix/Model Power. LL used to sell dummy GP38’s, The co$t of the heavy frame keeps mfr’s like Atlas or Kato from making them.
It may be a good sign that no junk units from Mehano or Lima are left. They are best left in the parts bin. The weight makes them too heavy to drag around.