Multi trains DC

[Dieseldrd]

New to model trains. I have 3 DC HO trains (Dewitt Clinton, Pegasus) I want to run them on different tracks at the same time. Is  there one controller that I can do this with so as I don't have to have 3 controllers running. Can I use the Bachmann DCC controller 44902?
Thanks Don

[ACY]

No, you cannot use an Ez-Command or any other DCC system because your locomotives do not have DCC and would not function very well if you installed DCC. Try getting a larger DC power source that can cover all three locos and isolate your layout into blocks,

[hawaiiho]

As already posted, no a DCC controller will not work. However, my brother models in S scale(DC). I have seen him run as many as 5 or 6 trains at a time.
As indicated it is done with blocks and he has two or three Lionel ZW transformers(not a small investment; $700+ for a new ZW). The new ZW will handle 4 trains at a time.
I'm not sure if a similar transformer for HO is available. I suspect that even if such an HO
transformer exists, going DCC would probably be less expensive.

One possibility, I think, would be to use a couple of  EZ DC controllers and two separate tracks with blocks,  on one table. That should allow running four trains at a time
with relative ease.  I personally have never tried more than two DC at time.

[uncbob]

You can run your power supply to  the three tracks---- connected in parallel

However the trains will all be controlled in common i.e. no independent speed control

They will all start and stop at the same time and speed up and slow down the same way

[Steve Magee]

Google could very well be your friend. Try "cab control model railroad" as a search and see what results. I find it a difficult concept to explain, but easy to do :-) Perhaps Jim Banner or someone with an ability to describe such things might like to try to explain cab control? But basically you only switch on the section of track to the controller that you want to use.

Good hunting

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[Doneldon]

Diesel-

You have two basic types of train controls in HO: DCC and DC (typically run as cab control).

DCC uses microprocessors to allow your controller to individually communicate with every locomotive on tracks with power so as to direct those locomotives as to speed and direction of travel, use or douse lights and maybe even use sound effects if your locos are so equipped. Every loco will have a "decoder" in it so that each loco responds only to commands intended for that loco. This is current state of the art and allows one to virtually run their trains. Unfortunately, your trains don't have this and, at least in the case of the DeWitt Clinton, it cannot be added as there is no room for the decoder. [I might add that the DeWitt Clinton, while truly cool to look at and to see run well, doesn't generally run well because it is too small and too light. It has trouble maintaining its power pick up due to its light weight and it is subject to just about anything from a grain of dust on up as a potential tracking problem.] The decoders in the locomotives "remember" their commands so you can tell one to do something and it will keep on doing that until you give it different instructions. This is true even if you go to tell a different loco to do something. Thus, one DCC controller can operate more than one train simultaneously. And I'll add that DCC wiring is simpler than DC block wiring, but not massively so as some of the advertisers would like you to believe.

DC, on the other hand, lets you operate your track, not the locos per se. You choose a direction and speed and every loco on connected track will go that direction and speed. To operate more than one loco in more than one direction or at more than one speed, you need to separate your railroad into electrically isolated sections of track called"blocks." Then you can select (with an electrical switch) which block to run and set it for a given speed and direction. Any and all locos in that block will do so. To control another train, you need to select a different block and set the rails for a direction and speed. Unfortunately, when you go from one block to the other, the first block is disconnected and the train in that piece of track will stop because the power is off. Now you can get around that. Just get another controller, call it cab A, and use Cab A to control train (loco) A. Then you can go to your first controller, Cab B, to control a different train in a different block. All these blocks and the switches necessary to assign a given Cab to a given block is what complicates the wiring.

I hope this not-so-brief note will help you to understand the differences between DCC and DC (block- or cab-control). There are excellent books at your LHS which go into much more and probably clearer detail about this but perhaps you now have enough information to start doing some planning.

Welcome to model railroading. It's a great hobby. I especially like it because it has so many facets - electricity, electronics, model building, painting, scenery, animation, sound and lights, engineering (structural, not operating), operations and lots more.
                                                                                                                                              -- D

[Jim Banner]

No, you cannot use an Ez-Command or any other DCC system because your locomotives do not have DCC and would not function very well if you installed DCC. Try getting a larger DC power source that can cover all three locos and isolate your layout into blocks,

And why would Dieseldrd's locomotives not function very well if he installed decoders in them?  A DCC decoder will not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear but I have never seen a locomotive run worse on DCC after a decoder was properly installed than it ran on dc before the decoder was installed.

Using a DCC system would allow Dieseldrd to run all his locomotive on one track if he wanted to.  But it will also work to run them on three separate tracks just as well.  If might come down to the difference in price between an E-Z Command plus the decoders versus three dc controllers.


Jim

[ACY]

The Dewitt Clinton & Pegasus, which he said he had have enough trouble as it is on DC, I do not think it would be a good idea especially if he has insulfrog turnouts or has trouble keeping his track and pickups clean (IIRC the pickups have trouble maintaining adequate contact on these locos, unless they have been redesigned to correct this).

[Dieseldrd]

Thanks Guys, I think I understand the problem.

Thanks Again Diesel

[railsider]

If you bought the De Witt and the Peggy as complete Bachmann sets in a box, then each has its own DC power supply. You can mix-and-match the EZ track, of course, and add more if you like. As long as you run each on its own track, you can control them independently with as many power packs.

EZ track and the inexpensive entry-level DC power supplies are usually available at swap meets, yard sales, thrift stores and eBay. You should be able to get a couple if you don't have them from the original boxed sets.

The problem with trying to convert these historic models to DCC is that there's not much room to fit the chips in, even though the motive power is in the tenders, not the locomotives. And then you have to invest in the DCC "head-end" equipment.

If I may, my principal belly-ache about these and similar "dawn of the railroad era" models -- I love 'em and have a bunch -- is that the couplers are nearly impossible draw-bars with pins. This is, indeed, historically accurate, but jeez, Mr. Bach Man, could somebody figure out a way to do them as magnetic couplers or something that would be less frustrating while not [a] historically inaccurate and too costly? Yeah, I'm working on it, but I haven't quite solved the problem yet -- there's bound to be smarter folks someplace who can reach this goal before I do. (By the way, I have a Hornby "Rocket" in OO scale that has those clever Euro couplers, and they work just fine.)

I should also say, Thanks, wunnerful Bachmann folks, for introducing the "Pegasus," even though it's pretty much a copy of the Lafayette loco and the John Bull cars. Keep on keepin' on, guys ... "Tom Thumb"?   "Best Friend of Charleston"? We dream, you make dreams come true.

[jbsmith]

New to model trains. I have 3 DC HO trains (Dewitt Clinton, Pegasus) I want to run them on different tracks at the same time. Is  there one controller that I can do this with so as I don't have to have 3 controllers running. Can I use the Bachmann DCC controller 44902?
Thanks Don

Key Phrase = On Different Tracks.

IF the three different tracks are not electrically connected, YES it can be done without DCC.
Assuming the tracks are completely seperate from eachother or at least divided electrically by plastic rail joiners if connected by switches [turnouts].
You could connect the powerpack to an Atlas switch like #210 or #215.
The tracks can be in turn connected to the above switch bank to get power.
this is also known as block or cab control, one of the two terms anyways to put it in a nutshell.

[Hellhound]

I run 3 parallel tracks with three separate DC power supplies. Maybe someday I will go to DCC but for now I still have too many old DC locomtives I like to run.