I can't speak for Joe, but by my reasoning, any part of a train that does not contribute tractive effort would need to be counted as a 'car' for operation planning purposes.   In fact, when calculating grade power requirements, a dummy loco may have to be counted as more than one 'car' because of its heavier weight (at least that's the case with my Blue Box dummies with their solid metal frames and fuel tanks)!

I have to watch my train lengths for a different reason:  my longest passing siding is only 17ft long.

This is only my opinion,

It seams to me that your talking about a Model Railroad and not the real thing. Now If you have a Dummy Engine on your Model it depicts an actual running Engine. As of yet I have never seen or heard of a Real Engine with a giant speaker in it and a sound unit. So if it requires you to have a Dummy with sound and a speaker in your train then, in the Model Railroad world wouldn't that actually count as an actual engine? Most of model Railroading is producing an illusion and a reenactment of the real thing. The few Diesels I own will pull 40 cars up a 3% grade all by themselves as long as the rubber is on the drive wheels and the weight of the engine is heavy enough to keep traction. Now, could a real engine do this and would it be realistic? NO!! but add 3 dummies to the Model train and it would look alot closer to being realistic because in fact now there are 4 Engines pulling the train up the grade and the only one that cares if only one of the engines is actually powered is you.

Now this is only my opinion and I call myself a Model Railroader and the Key word being Model is what makes it OK to count Dummies and real Powered units as the same. personally I have never seen a real F9 or SD40 Dummy in a train running down the main line.

Am I wrong? why would you not consider it as a real engine? If I was going to have to call it a car then I wouldn't use dummies ever I'd put the sound unit in a box car. if this isn't right someone please explain why.

Dan

Generally, we ignore dummies (that is a loco counts as "loco power", dummy or not). Most of the dummies are in first generation lashups, which tend to need more locos on the train, so it works.

Model road diesel all tend pull about the same, so one trick to make first generation locos pull noticeably less is to put a dummy in the lashup!

Thanks Joe.

Steve

Generally, we ignore dummies......

Always good advise.... (sorry, I couldn't resist.)

At our club, dummies are completely banned. (other than the ones controlling the throttle).

If the engine does not contribute to the pulling power, it is of no use. When running 40-50 car trains up grades and helices, you need 3-4 engines on the train just to actually pull it. Dummy engines serve no purpose in our environment, since if a train doesn't have enough engines it may have trouble on the helix anyway.

If the engine does not contribute to the pulling power, it is of no use.

Not to be argumentative... but  in N scale it would be nice for sound. I am going to take this brief moment to step on the soap box and lament the demise of manufacturers offering dummy locomotives...

Chris

My layout will have a helper district (1.8% grade) like the prototype KCS.  I run 35-45 (HO scale) car trains with three SD40-2 or SD50 on the front.  My front end power is Powered-Dummy-Powered.  If I used all powered locos a helper would not be necessary.  My helper set is one powerd and one dummy SD40-2.

I have been buying Athearn BB SD40-2 on Ebay and I am converting them to sound only locomotives as suggested by Joe in his #3 video.

In my modeling era (1981) the KCS still used F units.  I recently purchased an Athearn F7A-B set.  The B unit was a dummy.  Just put a Digitrax sound decoder in it.  The KCS converted some of the F7 to road slugs.  I can run this B unit as a road slug with the SD40-2 and add sound to the consist.  Since sound can be uploaded to the Digitrax decoder, when it is used with an F7 consist it will play EMD first generation sounds; in the SD40-2 it will play a recording of SD40-2.

ChrisNH:

Dummies may work for others in their situations (like JAMNEST describes his scheme). In our environment, we run long trains up significant grades in helices, and our area was not a helper area. To get a long train up often requires the power of 3-4 engines. A dummy engine in our situation is not providing any help to that and is just an additional car of dead weight in tow.

I understand completely..I was responding to what I thought was a blanket statement.. I left my coffee at home this morning so anything I wrote before I went for more coffee at lunch is entirely suspect..

Chris

Well, I'm not a fan of dummies personally either, and wouldn't get one. Although you and Jamnest have given some valid reasons to use them. I guess (like most things) it comes down to situation and personal choice, but personally I would not buy a dummy engine. If the train is a little overpowered because the model engine can handle it no problem, that's fine by me. If the train is heavy and due to grades it requires more engines to physically keep moving, then I'll add more and then dummies are certainly not an advantage.

So personally, I have no use for them, but if you you have a good use for them, then that's fine. There aren't too many "rules" when it comes to hobbies.