And it was good. Despite having DCC for about a year, it took me until tonight to try to run a train with a helper engine. Wow. So much fun. I am giddy. The details. Head end power consisted of 2 n scale Katos, an AC4400 and C44-9 with a fast speed Atlas GP50 sandwiched between em. Then about 15 or so mixed freight cars ahead of the slow speed Atlas B40-8 which in turn lead a cut of covered hoppers and tank cars. The train ran 2 full laps with no derailments or other issues. If I was not sold on the capabilities of DCC before tonight, I am now. It was so much fun watching the slack move up and down the train and adjusting the helper power as it moved around the layout. On the list of things to do is adding a second controller, so that I can try running a train with another person. Nodima
Nodima: You can speed match all three loco's fairly easily. Why don't you look into the free Decoder Pro software program. It will set up speed curves for all your loco's very quickly amongst many other options. Stay cool and run steam....
I am just operating by myself, with a 3 unit head end, which I start to a low speed, switch to the helper, and accelerate slowly, then repeat until speed is reached. Thanks for the compliments on the pics. Someday I hope to put something resembling real lighting in. Course, then all my errors will really show up As for decoder pro, my understanding is that you need a computer close to the layout, which is not my situation currently. k
