I wonder if anyone has experienced the following situation, or can provide insight cause I is baffled!! I have a yard which is powered by a regular MCR Tech II 2500 DC power Pack. I purchased two new Kato AC 4400 and two Atlas GP 40, both without decoders as I am still waiting for the decoders to arrive. I have run the new locos on the mainline which is powered by a Digitrax DB 150, when these new locos came off the main line and into a sub line leading to the yard, both Locos types basically began to speed up. It was quite noticable as the GP40 moved really slow on the mainline. I have been playing with this for two days and have even run the Decoder equipped Locos and noticed that they also speed up when entering the sub line and yards and slow down on the mainline. I have set the power to full throttle on both systems and the difference in speed performance is dramatic, in both decoder and non decoder equipped locos. Is this a normal occurence with DCC vs regular power packs, or do I have a problem??. I mean the GP40 on the digitrax system just crawls at snails pace around track and barely make it up a 2% grade with three 50 foot box cars, on reg DC they look like they are ready to take off like a plane. I have power leads every 10 feet of track. Is what I am experiencing a normal occurence of DCC Power? [ April 13, 2005, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: okane ]
First of all, you shouldn't be combining DCC and DC power. You risk destroying your MRC unit. When you go from the DCC to the DC track you create a path for the power from the DCC unit to go to the lower rated DC unit. Never a good idea. As to your question of speed differences between DCC and DC, you are comparing two different types of power. What is the voltage difference between the 2 tracks? On the DCC track you are using pulse stretching to simulate DC power for your non-decoder equiped locomotives. Even if you have the equivalent of 12 volts on the DCC track and 12 VDC on the DC track, you will not get as much effective power to the motor on the DCC powered track. The result is the motor does not run as fast as on straight DC. For decoder equiped locomotives, the same problem exists. Again, what is the voltage difference between the 2 tracks? Remember that the voltage on DCC track is constant. On DC track it varies. David
