H7 x 2

That looks very impressive indeed Lee. I wish that I had enough room to use O72 curves.

And…. you can use the term 'Lash-up' with justification too! 

Lee,

We have set aside some funds for a new loco and would dip into next years portion to get one of these. Can you tell me if it has the correct 8 chuffs or only 4 chuffs per revolution? We passed on the earlier release when Lionel was missing 6 chuffs per revolution and it only had 2 chuffs.

Thanks

It sounds like it has 8 chuffs to me, but I actually don't count.  Someone else might know.  (When I run two together I get so many chuffs it just sounds incredible!)

Very impressive. Just the engines & tenders look to be about 4 feet long.

Lee, how do you get the 2 to run together in conventional? I have a pair of Dash-9's coming, and want to try this, but they will be run tail to tail. I don't have Legacy or tmcc yet.

Bill

I have had no problem.  I put them on the track - I "lash them together" listerally with fine wire - I hook up the train.  I bring track power on my ZW-L up to an indicated 11 on the throttle - they come alive, chuffing at idle: two sound really intense and BIG! - I pull back and hold and then release the direction button, and they both go into forward and slowly charge forward in unison.  They behave, too, if I gently move the throttle up or down, etc. 

I did not expect a problem and did not have one.  Their electric motors adjust slightly to the mechanical pull of being "bolted" together (think about it, those motors are already doing it, since the pair in each loco is bolted to another motor/driver set that will, inevitably, be at a slightly different speed.  They don't fight each other, and as long as I use the direction button with a brief hold before release, they stay in sync as far as whether they are in F, N, or R. 

Before doing this, I did set them up, together, unlashed, about two feet separation apart and ran them like this, with the rar loco pulling the train.  They started and ran fine and stayed pretty much together, the one in front, not pulling the train slowly falling behind- maybe at a rate of maybe about 5% or 10% of distance traveled or so. 

Thanks Lee. I'm hoping that if I lock the lead unit in forward, and the trailing unit in reverse it will work for me. BTW if it matters these are the Dash-9's Lionel just released. I have been thinking of trying this on my MTH equipment as well.

Bill

Lee,

It Will be interesting how long they live as a 10% speed error on identical locomotives seems extreme.

Bill,

I do not know if that will work. I recall us having to program the reversed unit that way (and operate as "TR") otherwise every power interuption it reverted back to forward. We skipped on two MTH locomotives as the portable modular layout doesn't have functioning DCS and there was no way to "monkey" with this in conventional.

cool. I am still saving for my first H7. 

Bring on the video!
Thanks for sharing

Guys, I'm an electrical engineer and I'm not the least worried -- confident that the electronics won't care and these motors will live forever with a 10% slip - they adjust.  Still, I'm also careful, so I use an infrared temp measurement gun to monitor temps on all my locos and these both stay with the normal bounds of temp rise when they are running alone (typical is about a 4-5 deg rise on a Legacy loco and 9-11 deg on the hot spot of its tender). When running at a steady 25 -30 mph in tandem, the rear loco here works hardest and goes about 2 degree above those nominal figures - no big deal.  The front loco runs at normal temps - its not really doing much work.  Besides, I'm not going to do this, this often.  This is not a consist I will just let run when I'm doing other things, so its only something I do when I am actively watching and at the controls.  This combo won't get alot of action.  Most of the afternoon while I worked on my tractor trailer I left the one loco running while I was in the workshop and had the other on the shelf

The only thing that worried me about running in tandem was whether the front driver set on the rearmost of the two engines would have trouble tracking well in curves.  It does: I had to play with with the right length to my "lashing" - but once that was done they behave themselves.