Putting a Locomotive Asleep


B

beiland

Well-Known Member
This past Sat I was invited to come visit the model railroad layout/club in Palatka, Fl, while several of their members worked on a couple of problems they were experiencing. I took advantage of the opportunity of both meeting some other fellows involved in the hobby and the fact that they had an NCE system operating their fairly large layout.



One thing I noticed in particular, and that I'm still trying to understand,.....their ability to put one locomotive to sleep while moving onto run another one:
1) by asleep I mean with no motor running/ id-lying, no sound, & no lights.
2) and they could do this without the loco sitting on any particular piece of track, and without there being a toggle switch for that piece of track.

I believe it involved pressing some combination of the number 9 button to put it to sleep, ....then some combination of the number 6 or 8 to bring it back alive


Can someone explain what I might have seen/experienced??.....I've been under the impression that this was not possible,...that one would need a toggle-switched section of track to do such an action?
 
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I believe that while the engine is moving you can press #8 and that would mute the sound. While it is sitting #8 will shut it down. Not sure on the first part though.
 
With most DCC systems, you will have the option to put a loco through a "Power Down" or "Shut Down" sequence (just like shutting off your car). Usually a function of the decoder.

I say MOST as it is not always an option. I was running the MRC system on my layout and had a Digitrax decoder in one of my locos. There was no "Power Down" command in this particular decoder, but rather the primer mover sound would power down automatically when the loco was deselected by the command station. The problem with this is that there was no way to actually deselect a loco with the MRC, so the loco this decoder was in just sat idling all the time unless I powered down the track. - Other decoders I used had separate power down functions and I could turn on and off the prime mover sounds whenever and wherever I wanted.
 
Starting up/shutting down sequence varies according to the decoder manufacturer. Some use F8, some use F9, and some use a different method, such as pressing the emergency stop button while that loco is dialed up.
The command station brand has little to do with it.
 
That Digitrax decoder I mentioned above used F8 as a "quite" button, not mute. :) My Econami decoders would go through the shut down after hitting the notch down button from an idle (F5 or F6 - can't remember which). F8 was a true mute for those decoders.

On RailPro, which I am now running, you simply press a button on the screen if you want the engine running or not. 😁
 
I was afraid it might be something like this,..so many DIFFERENT approaches that a person has to memorize for each different decoder brand,..along with all the CV's. I would have thought there might have been more standardization in the DCC world
 
beiland said:
I was afraid it might be something like this,..so many DIFFERENT approaches that a person has to memorize for each different decoder brand,..along with all the CV's. I would have thought there might have been more standardization in the DCC world
Click to expand...
It's fine if you stick with one or two brand decoders, but rarely is that the case.
 
geezo criminey.
Ya go to several different locations in your weekly walk of life; work, the store, entertainment, friends, family or whatever and ya don't have a problem remembering how to get there.
You can remember all the buttons to play the bell, horn, lights, coupler clank and turn the smoke on and off and how to select a locomotive.
 
Still would be a PITA - kinda like switching from Mac, to Linux, to Windoz. Now where did I put that last window ;) and which machine was I working with before I had 2P?

Later
 
beiland said:
I was afraid it might be something like this,..so many DIFFERENT approaches that a person has to memorize for each different decoder brand,..along with all the CV's. I would have thought there might have been more standardization in the DCC world
Click to expand...
Make a small "cheat sheet" with the basic decoder instructions, laminate it, and place it with the command station.
For example:
Startup- Digitrax: speed step 1 then idle
BLI: F9
Loksound: F8




and the same for shutdown. If you want to get creative, you can make the text a different color for each decoder brand, so you can see at a glance.
 
beiland said:
I was afraid it might be something like this,..so many DIFFERENT approaches that a person has to memorize for each different decoder brand,..along with all the CV's. I would have thought there might have been more standardization in the DCC world
Click to expand...
There was a lot of standardization in the DCC world early on. However, a lot of the standards were instituted before sound became widely available. As a result, sound manufacturers are fairly free to use (or not use) any and all the extra CV's as they see fit. And I'm fairly confident that that's the reason for the disparity.
 
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