Fighting the sierra grade up to "Dog Soldier Pass" : An ongoing struggle.

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Where's the peak where you had that coupler failure earlier?
The coupler failure occured at Sullivan's curve a few cars behind a WB head locos.
The "peak" is just a gap marking the end of the second 3% "step" upgrade. Past the gap the track progressively change to a 2% downgrade at the east end of Sullivan's Curve.
The problem was that 1/4 of the train was already on the downgrade and 3/4 still moving upgrade. Plus all the power on the head end.
I also eased the track superelevation of the gap curve. The name is "Rattler Gap".
(Check my upper level plan).
 
When you crest the hill and start heading down, is there an effect with BEMF? Does the decoder kick the dynamic braking on?
 
When you crest the hill and start heading down, is there an effect with BEMF? Does the decoder kick the dynamic braking on?
Sorry but BEMF is quite a mystery for me.
What I know is that dynamic brakes sound is only activated when I press the dedicated
"button", there is no automatic activation.

It actually bothers me sometimes. When a train passes from upgrade to downgrade I progressively switch from notch 8 to dynamics, which is fantastic to do.
BUT if there is a rear helper consisted with the head end, ALL locos obey to the same order.
BUT again it is possible to do better.
1- I activate the dynamic brakes.
2- I rapidly open the rear helper control window to switch off the dynamics sound and activate notch 8.
It works ! So I have notch 8 on the rear helper and dynamics on the head end.
You gotta be fast though and be used to the app control.
When the helper reaches the top I again progressively switch from notch 8 to dynamics.
You understood that, even if it's possible, it would be complex to do with mid plus rear helpers. You would need an extraordinary sense of coordination !!!
 
I actually discovered that possibility.
When several locos are consisted together you can still have access to each of them by way of their respective control window.
This way you can also activate horn or bell independently on any loco consisted, it doesn't affect the consist.
For example you can also switch on or off the beacon or the lights
 


Yeah, I know what you mean about BEMF. I just tuned one of my locos manually and it was interesting how one of the settings had me try to stall the loco and it sensed the load and kept the wheels spinning. Let me do some reading of the sountraxx manual. I"ll let you know what I find.
 
Ok, it's not dynamic brakes.
From the TSU2 manual:

Dynamic Digital Exhaust (DDE) is one of the most fun effects featured in Tsunami2.
When the locomotive encounters a grade. DDE responds to this by elevating the engine RPM schedule and volume to simulate the locomotive exerting more power. Similarly, the demand on the motor is lifted when the locomotive starts drifting downhill, which reduces the engine RPM schedule and volume.

It uses the BEMF to sense the load. This is cool. No manual intervention needed and less chance of derailing.
 
Thank's for that !
I printed all Blunami manuals, but there are so many things, it's quite complex, I get tired very fast, especially when it gets to CVs and number of bits and so on...Wow !
I only recently discovered that CV 59 controls the ditch lights flashing rate. I needed to slow that down, so the higher the value is, the slower they alternatly flash.
I am so proud of myself...
 
Ok, it's not dynamic brakes.
From the TSU2 manual:

Dynamic Digital Exhaust (DDE) is one of the most fun effects featured in Tsunami2.
When the locomotive encounters a grade. DDE responds to this by elevating the engine RPM schedule and volume to simulate the locomotive exerting more power. Similarly, the demand on the motor is lifted when the locomotive starts drifting downhill, which reduces the engine RPM schedule and volume.

It uses the BEMF to sense the load. This is cool. No manual intervention needed and less chance of derailing.
Yeah I use the DDE feature each time I am done with decoder install. This before I even operate the loco.
I love it ! The only drawback is that it tells you how well you built the subroadbed and how well your tracks are laid.
 
DDE is installed by putting the loco on a long enough stretch of straight and flat track.
Press the DDE feature and the loco automatically start at step 1 then all the way up to 30 then stops. It says "completed". You're done. It's memorized in the decoder.
If you have adjusted the fwd and rev momentum before that, it's automatically deconnected during the process AND automatically reconnected when done, which is great !
 




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