Need some insight from people who have driven locomotives

[new guy]

RCH did a great job of describing both braking and throttle use. When I was a kid, I had the opportunity to have spent countless hours riding with relatives in the cabs of steam, diesel and electric locomotives with them working on both the Norther Pacific and Milwaukee road. I can remember them trying to describe what RCH did a great job of doing, but one thing that really stands out about their description is that you "gain a feel for it". Time behind the throttle was extremely important and braking in the mountainous terrain of western Montana required a lot of experience also. They always had to think miles ahead of where they were.

They were dealin with some MASS! LOL! I've driven some pretty heavy equipment, farm, construction and military, and yea, you gotta 'feel' it, but what they were doing is exponentially more intense! By a factor of HUGE! (oh, MAN, just ONCE!...) LOL!

 

[lmackattack]

Not sure if you know this but TCS (train control systems) Has a DCC decoder that lets you "Drive" your model train similar to the real thing.

they call it WOW sound decoder.

How it works
you turn the knob on your controller and the train slowly starts to move with the labor sounds of a heavy chuff or the diesel working hard. lets say you get your train up to 40mph and want to stop or slow it . you turn the knob back to 0 but the train slowly coasts and the sounds are of a locomotive are now at idle not working hard. to slow your train you have to apply the brakes. A press of F7 gives you a brake application. press it again and the brakes come on a little harder etc... if you set the brakes to hard simply press F6 and you now you have released the brakes and it will continue to coast. When breaking the knob can be set anywhere 0-100% but it will just control the sound of the loco working or not working hard. I really enjoy this as you have more prototypical control over you loco. I have set my acceleration and declaration very high so I can use the braking F7 key similar to how the 1:1 trains would do. Also when you press F7 you will hear the brakes set and squeal of brake shoes. same with F6 you hear the release of the brakes. you tube it to see how it works.