# Consists on DCC



## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Just how close to the same speed do locos have to be
to run them in a consist on DCC.


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## Xnats (Dec 5, 2010)

The closer the better I would say. I just make sure all engines stay the same pace pace at low and medium speed in the straight away. Trying to match speeds at all ranges is just insane. You can normally tell if they need a better adjustment after a few laps.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Thanks. So I guess if they appear to be working together well they are.
I would think someday the decoders will be able to regulate the speed of
an engine in a consist. Like if the decoder notices the engine is dragging
that it could put some more juice to that engine. I have only recently got
DCC and only have 2 DCC locos. A diesel and a steamer. Their speeds are 
nowhere close so I have not been able to try a consist. I have athearn blue
box engines that I will be doing installs on. I was just looking ahead to when
I can lash up 3 or 4 powered units. One of the reasons I got DCC.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Yep they need to match fairly close or you could do damage to one or all and/or you'll just work and overheat the faster one.


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## Xnats (Dec 5, 2010)

Doing all the same kind of engine makes life easier too. It really helps when the engines are already close in speed range. In N Scale mating a Kato and Atlas is a pain. The Kato needs a lot of fiddling to drop it's speed in all the ranges. If you are running off a computer the work goes by way faster too. Who knows maybe in a few years, one of those college kids will write a script to automatically match speeds and offer it to use for free for beta testing :laugh:


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