Speed Matching

[JonJet]

I have 50+ N-scale loco's...and 5 HO...

All the HO models are Bachmann GP40's and SD40-2's...but I cannot seem to get anywhere using CV 2/5/6 to speed match

I have CV2 at 10 - CV5 at 255

The AccutrackII shows the same whether CV6 is 50 or 150

Am I missing something???

[trainman203]

Cv 209 and 210 matter a lot with this.  Cv2 should always be 0.

You need to work momentum cv's 3 and 4 too.

Read the default settings on these and record so you can go back if you have to. 

This is a 4 way balancing act so be patient as you go, it will probably take a lot of trial and error.

[jward]

I have 50+ N-scale loco's...and 5 HO...

All the HO models are Bachmann GP40's and SD40-2's...but I cannot seem to get anywhere using CV 2/5/6 to speed match

I have CV2 at 10 - CV5 at 255

The AccutrackII shows the same whether CV6 is 50 or 150

Am I missing something???

Are these the DCC OnBoard units that came with the factory decoders? If so they may not support CV5 or CV6. This makes speed matching impossible. If this is important to you, you'll need to replace the original decoder with an aftermarket one like the NCE Bach-DSL which is a drop in replacement. I am not sure why the original decoders do not support these very important CVs.

[JonJet]

@trainman203 - CV2 is the start voltage...determining the motor speed at step 1
I have never seen any factory or installed decoder with a default CV2 setting of 0
In fact...most mfgr's recommend anywhere from 2 to 26 for CV2 depending on the typical use of the loco
I already have CV3 and CV4 set where I want them tyvm

@jward - Yes they are DCC OnBoard units...I kinda suspected they may not be adjustable
They are not perfectly matched but very close

[wjstix]

Generally, an engine will start more smoothly with CV2 at zero. If you're using 128 speed steps and set CV2 at 20, when you move the throttle to speed step 1 the engine it will jump from 0 to speed step 20. I usually only use CV2 if I have two engines I want to speed match, and one is a little more sluggish getting started.

You may find adjusting CV66 (Forward Trim) and CV 95 (Reverse Trim) up or down from the default 128 may make the engine run slower or faster.

[Ralph S]

Speed matching!  Doesn't it take the fun out of railroading?  Now if you talking about having two engines on the same track and you want these two to stay spaced apart as they move around the track, that's one thing.   But if you are using them in a consist configuration, that's where all the fun is.  You can take either the first and/or the second engine and manually control their speed as a part of the fun to keep them at an equal stance with one another.  The real fun comes in descending or ascending a grade where one will engine may need assistance to support the other.  To me that's a lot of fun keeping pace with the movement of the entire train, and it's an artist that can control both engines, keeping them from jerking along, but produce smooth movement. 

[jward]

Why do all that to get two locomotives to run together when you can program them to do so? The way you are trying to do this, every time you want to speed up or slow down you have to adjust both locomotives, and until you make those adjustments they will fight each other. Can you imagine what would happen on the real railroads if the engineer had to keep running from unit to unit adjusting throttle settings? Thankfully, control of the entire consist as one locomotive dates to the early days of diesels. With speed matching we can do the same on our model trains.

[Terry Toenges]

I have pair of identical Bachmann 4-4-0's that I consisted. I only used one address for both of them. One of them is slower than the other even though they are identical so "like" locos aren't always equal in speed.

[trainman203]

With doubleheading steam engines, the fun is each engine having its own engineer!  Just like the prototype in the old days!  You need DCC to do this of course.


Talk about intense.  I've done it many times.  It's hard enough to do on a model, so on the prototype it was easy to jerk out a knuckle or a drawbar. Those hoggers on doubleheaded engines had to be experienced old heads.  I don't remember them anymore, but in those pre-radio days there were specific whistle calls by the lead engine to tell the trailing engine what they were doing, like applying brakes in particular..  you can do that on a model railroad also.

Now THIS is fun!

The advent of the diesel made MU operation possible and got rid of all this multiple crew business, which was costly and efficient in many ways.

I have always maintained that diesels were better than steam engines in every aspect, except one..... the "COOL" factor! 😎😎

[jward]

I have pair of identical Bachmann 4-4-0's that I consisted. I only used one address for both of them. One of them is slower than the other even though they are identical so "like" locos aren't always equal in speed.

This is where adjusting CV5 and CV6 work wonders. One locomotive runs 20% faster than the other? Adjust CV5 downward by 20% and you should be close. Run them at mid speed and make a similar adjustment to CV6. I've used a stopwatch to time locomotives over a known length of track to calculate speed differences and made adjustments based on those.

[Terry Toenges]

One is just a little bit faster. It might take 4 or 5 laps to catch up to the other one after it pulls away.