Lashing 2 Power Units

[peisenmetrains]

I have a Williams GP9 powered unit and the companion dummy unit.  I was considering buying an additional powered unit and lashing them together.  Has anyone had any experience lashing 2 powered units?
Do they pull together okay?
Do they in fact increase the pulling power to run more rolling stock?
Any issues or advice?

Thanks much. Paul

[jpstrainyard]

JP of Acton MA, USA writes,

One option would be to convert your dummy unit to a powered unit with the power upgrade trucks, and then install a disconnectable wire tether, like ones from Digital Dynamics (www.digitaldynamics.com), from the reverse board in the powered unit to the dummy unit's power upgrade trucks, so that one board controls all the motors in the same direction. Doing this procedure would turn your dummy unit into a slave powered unit that would be dependant on the lead powered unit to run.

-JP

[ASQTec]

I have three pairs of Williams powered diesels lashed up (not together, but each pair running separately), with not a single issue. Since they start in forward after a few seconds of being powered off, they work perfectly.

I have done two mods, but they are not necessary:

1-I have the motors wired in series
2- I reversed the plugs on the board of the second diesel in each pair so it starts in reverse (I run my lashed pairs back-to-back)

Have fun!

[DominicMazoch]

I think we have gotten a "bad" word from "Command control" .  When diesels and/or electrics are run together, most "real" railroaders would use the words "multi-unit", or "MU".  Caution:  don't use the use "lash-up" on the OGR blog!

[ASQTec]

I think we have gotten a "bad" word from "Command control" .  When diesels and/or electrics are run together, most "real" railroaders would use the words "multi-unit", or "MU".  Caution:  don't use the use "lash-up" on the OGR blog!

A couple of my neighbors are retired from the Lehigh Valley RR, and they tell me that "lash" or "lashup" were the terms they used to describe an MU back in the day. My first part time job in the seventies was in a small Chessie yard in NJ, and I disinctly remember that word being used...could have been slang, though.

I think only forum members who currently work for a rail company might object to the term. They'll get over it.

[peisenmetrains]

Thanks for the comments and clarification on using 'MU'.

Follow-up to ASQtec:
1) Are your "multi-units" coupled together or uncoupled (and therefore only "appear" to be MU)?
2) If coupled, do you have any push/pull issues with the units?
3) Is it easy to change the e unit so that the second powered unit starts up in reverse?

Thanks again. Paul

[mike d]

I have added the dummy upgrades to a few of my dummies and regularly run them in multiple. No need for a tether or anything other than the power kit.

It takes a few tries to get a feel for cycling the power to get them to stay in synch, but it isn't a big deal. When cycling the reverse boards, with either the direction button or the throttle lever of your transformer, give the units time to stop completely before releasing the direction button or advancing the throttle. If they ever get out of synch, power them down completely and wait about 10 seconds for the caps to discharge and they'll start up just fine.

I have some dedicated to start in reverse for realistic consists. An example being my E7 ABA set. All are powered and the trailing A starts in reverse. Don't bother looking for the "dot" on the motor or flywheel that is mentioned in the directions that mark the forward motor. I haven't seen them on my motors. I just install the kit and test run it before the shell goes on. If the loco isn't going the direction you want it to go in, just swap the connectors on the board and you'll be set.

I have had five of them MU'ed just to see how they would act and to check current draw. They ran fine together and current draw wasn't very high although there was no load on them.

[ASQTec]

Thanks for the comments and clarification on using 'MU'.

Follow-up to ASQtec:
1) Are your "multi-units" coupled together or uncoupled (and therefore only "appear" to be MU)? Coupled together.

2) If coupled, do you have any push/pull issues with the units? No. I have found that unless there is wide variations in speed between each powered unit, they will work together in harmony. I run my trains fairly slow. I prefer this over running at toy train speeds.

3) Is it easy to change the e unit so that the second powered unit starts up in reverse? For the Williams diesels, it took me about 10 minutes and no tools. I just swithced the plugs. My Lionel postwar MU's on the otherhand are teathered, because I did not want to alter the E units. This takes a bit longer.

Thanks again. Paul

[phillyreading]

I have found this to be true when adding additional power units to an un powered engine. Be careful of the year the upgrade kit is being used with, as the upgrade kit's motors can be stronger in power than the older original engines motors. This happened to me with an F-7 motor upgrade that I did almost a year ago, the original Williams engine was close to 18 years old, and was much slower than the upgrade kit motors. So I swapped the motors from an another Williams F-7 of the same age, only this set had one powered unit, now I have a better running set of F-7's for my passenger train.
Test the engines by running them around the track on an oval loop, uncoupled from each other, one in front then the other in front and see if either engine tries to move away from the other at a faster speed. If both move at the same speed for a few times around the track there should be no problems.

Lee F.

[DominicMazoch]

I have run 3 SD90's at one time, running "elephant style", that is, all with the cabs facing forward.  No issues.