How do two + engines work together?

[ozone45212]

I couldnt find this anywhere, so heres my question.
In real world how do two engines or more work together (actual controls between locos) is there some type of hookup or do they both have to be driven by seperate engineers?
In TS2009 is the hp of the engines realistic, and do the more engines you have actually give you more power? Do you need an engineer in all cabs?

 

[Muliebuck]

I can't speak for other countries, but here in Australian, Queensland to be particular, we have 'remote control' slave units, where a radio signal is sent to the trailing locomotive, which in turn is interpreted by the onboard computer, to adjust its throttle, braking etc. Often, there's a little 'pie cart' wagon as they're nicknamed, which houses the radios and such for the slave units, then sends the information via attatched cables to the trailing loco.

I'm no expert, but having discussed such with actual drivers, I can't remember the exact specifics, but I think this is a case of 'good enough for Government work' as it were, and might give you a little more idea

As for TRS2009, you don't need a 'second engineer' to drive the second, third, etc loco in the consist, just one (for laughs, sit in the cab of the trailing loco, or slave unit further back), and watch as the controls move without you touching them. As for 'realistic' enginespecs and such, I'm afraid you might be grasping for straws - whilst content-creators do their best, I'm sure, to get 'as close as practicable' for their enginespecs, due to Trainz *not* having 'real world physics' and such, then no, it won't be 'prototypical', but it'll come close enough

 

[AJ_Fox]

When there are two or more locomotives lashed together, on the the lead loco the controls work and control all the locos in the lash. The controls are not functional in the other locos but they still deliver power, brake and so forth from the lead loco's controls.

Cheers

AJ

 

[Railwayz]

Operation of multiple units

Hello Ozone 452,

When more than one locomotive is needed to haul a train the locomotives are usually controlled by a jumper coupling between each locomotive. The closest analogy to this is when you are towing a trailer behind your car and you need to plug in a cable between the car and trailer to make the brake an indicator lights work.

With a locomotive various pins in the jumper cable control throttle notching, dynamic brake, sanding etc on the other locomotives which means that one or two people can control all of the locomotives. Air braking is controlled by connecting air hoses between the locomotives. Locomotives generally have two extra air hoses which control the locomotive brakes being applied and released. Sometimes when a jumper cable is defective a second driver can be placed in one of the other locomotives to control the loco's on the other side of the broken cable.

When distributed power (meaning the loco's are spread throughout the train rather than all together at the front) is required then radio control can be used such as Muliebuck described in Queensland very similar to the way you control a remote control car. Pacific National experimented with something similar here in New South Wales with the PN class which were designed to haul short container trains in a push me pull you configuration. This worked after a fashion until the train passed another radio controlled train at which point the control system would become confused and shut down.

As for the horsepower specs being realistic I tend to agree with Muliebuck.

Railwayz

 

[srr89]

Sometimes what happens here in the US (lets say were talking about two steamers doubled up) the front engine is the main engine pulling most of the train, and the second one will have the throttle up as well but the throttle can't be opened up as much, because that would put pressure on the front locomotive and thusly cause a derailment. :hehe: That might be another reason why they don't really have steam doubleheaders anymore.

Robby :wave:

 

[trainzbroken]

in the only the lead loco has a crew. the rest of the locos are controlled via a cable. and all locos run at the same power. if the lead is in notch 8 so are the rest of the locos. just like when you had cabless b units back in the 60's to late 80's cause the union would argue you needed a crew to run the other locos.

 

[carnsrb]

If you look at the coupler area of diesel locomotives in the US at least you see a number of "hoses". These are known as MU Hoses where the MU stands for Multiple Unit. It's through these connections that the information is passed that allows multiple units to be run as one. As trainzbroken points out the appearance of slave or "B" units as they were known in the U.S. came about because of the union initial resistance to running an engine without a person in the cab. Once that issue passes away slave units went away giving the railroads the flexibility to configure multiple units anyway they saw fit and every unit became capable of being used alone or as a lead unit.

 

[R707]

Sometimes what happens here in the US (lets say were talking about two steamers doubled up) the front engine is the main engine pulling most of the train, and the second one will have the throttle up as well but the throttle can't be opened up as much, because that would put pressure on the front locomotive and thusly cause a derailment. :hehe: That might be another reason why they don't really have steam doubleheaders anymore.

Robby :wave:

Hi Robby,

In my experience as a Steam Locomotive Driver, I have run double header and triple header. There is no restriction on any steam locomotive behind the lead steam locomotive.

In fact, one day when I was running a triple header steam combo, I was driving the third steam locomotive. The front two had steaming problems with poor coal, so I pushed the two leading steam locomotives, and pulled the train behind me. And we did very well.

In normal practice, it was the usual to run the lead steam locomotive as the one which had the largest compressor. Exceptions happened of course.

Going up any grade, all steam locomotives worked hard.

Pete

 

[ozone45212]

thank you all for the reply...

 

[backyard]

Boy...burn the guys that have hoses disabled...

If your talking Diesel-electric, you came to the right place....

All the motors run off the lead unit-Driver....

Any attached pushers will take over the lead Driver, unless you give a "Get off Train" command just prior to hook-up with the train.

Major rule being only one Driver per train.

If you bugger up the "hook-up", just go to the lead Driver using the Avatar needed.

All Diesel-electric locomotives will respond to the throttle on the lead engine.

In train "radio-controlled" or Distrubuted Power Units(DPU) will automatically respond to the AI Driver in the lead unit.

Trainz RULES!