# Speed Matching Locos



## downunda (Jul 23, 2016)

I'm wanting to speed match three locos to use in a DCC loco consist. Two of the locos are Athern Genesis and their speeds are pretty much the same so no problem with them. 

On the other hand my Kato with Loksound is much slower (and more realistic I think) for a given speed setting than the Atherns so it ssems logical that I should adjust the speed of the Kato but looking at the various CVs (2,3,4,5 or 6) I'm not sure which to adjust???

I should add that I do have an Accutrack speedo to check them with.


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

CV 2 is your start voltage.
CV 3 is your momentum for starting your train up.
CV 4 is your momentum for slowing the train to a stop.
CV 5 is your max speed.
CV 6 is your mid point speed, i.e.50 on your throttle.
If your Kato is slower than the Athearns, you will have to set your Athearn locos to a slower top speed.
Your decoder has a speed table capability which will give you a more precisely matched throttle across the entire range of operation. It's more tedious to set up but keeps the locos in pace the whole time. You would do good to have a speed recorder to do that.
If you are only going to do the three step speed matching, start with CV 2. Match the starting voltage of the Athearns to match the Kato. Do this by MUing the Kato and Athearn onto one decoder. Turn the throttle knob to start the locos. If the Kato moves first, you need to increase the CV 2 value in the Athearn. If the Athearn moves first, then increase the CV2 of the Kato unit.
To set the max speed of the locos, do the same thing. Which ever loco is running faster, reduce the CV 5 of that loco until they match speed. Do the mid range speed last by running the locos at the half throttle speed.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Thanks Ken. Best info I have seen for speed matching. Sounds easy. I know it involves a lot of trial and error. This really helps.

I would think giving all locos more momentum
would help keep the herky jerky down.


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## downunda (Jul 23, 2016)

*Speed Mathing*

I've managed to get the Kato and the Atherns matched in speed by using trail and error adjustments of CVs 2,5 and 6, I've not tried adjusting CVs 3 and 4 (momentum) yet and will need to as the Athern is slowing faster than the Kato.

Prior to making any changes it was observed (using my Accutrack) that the Kato will run much slower than the Atherns for various controller speed steps and my intent was to slow the Atherns to match the Kato but the CV settings for the Athern were already at minimum so they couldn't be slowed.

The slowest speeds that my Atherns will operate at is 4.1mph where the Kato is 0.5mph. That is rather strange to me as the Kato at speed steps 1 and 2 _(should read NCE PowerCab speed settings_) seems much more realistic than the Atherns.

I'd be interested in you comments on the wide variance between both makes.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Are you using 128 speed steps?

I have an Athearn BB with a digitrax decoder that I can make crawl, as in barely noticeable movement.


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## downunda (Jul 23, 2016)

CTValleyRR said:


> Are you using 128 speed steps?


Thanks for your response... I must admit my lack of knowledge regarding speed steps as I am very new at this. When I said speed steps in my entry I should have said speed setting 1 on my NCE PowerCab (I've been viewing jlwii2000 on youtube too much and have picked up his terminoligy!). 

I would like a little help here as I would like to get the Atherns running much slower. I think i'm learning a lot but I still don't know what I don't know!


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