SPEEDOMETER

[rrinker]

For steam, or pushers on the back, manual is the only way to go - that's the way it was done, anyway. For multiple unit diesels all ont he front though, even the real thing runs them all from oen cab. So some speed matching is required. However, I think since we now have all sorts of twqeaks with DCC, we tend to go overboard on just how matched they have to be. It does NOT have to be perfect, it jsut has to be close. People are goign nuts with usign speed tables so that the locos are exactly dead on at every single speed step - t's really not required. We ran two or more locos together using DC, and there was really no way to adjust speeds at just parts of the control range - one that ran too fast you could slow down with some diodes, but you couldn;t have that work at different parts of the throttle band (ok, being am EE I can think of some rather complicated circuits that COULD do that in plain DC - but let's not go there). Yet everythign worked fine. DCC is no different - as long as they are close so one isn't actually dragging the other, locos will work fine in consist. While a fancy speedometer is a nice gadget, and I suppsoe just about any self-respectign gadget freak probably ought to have one, it's certainly not necessary for speed matching locos. What is IS good for is showing peopel just how fast they are running - most people tend to run their models far too fast. Like that 100 car coal drag whooshing past at 80 per... umm, maybe on a downgrade if the brakes have failed. Case in point, exaggerated speeds in the movie Unstoppable - most people have no idea about trains, so they had to use something more like car speeds - 70, omg that's fast! It wouldn't have seemed as impressive if they had the train getting up to the breakneck speed of 40mph.

--Randy