Why only 5 engine limit for Legacy? For running a MU engine consist.

Really??  I'm the only one who wants to run more than 5 diesels together????  Can't be!!!

Because it is not DCC!

While I can't answer why, I would just re-program like engines behind the lead engine to be the same ID number (you just can't have them facing different directions from each other).

The question of why, and if this can this be changed in the future would be excellent questions to be given to MartyE for the next Legacy Users Group breakfast at York.  Even if you don't go to York, he posts the answers on his thread regarding the matter, and video of the meeting is usually posted there as well.

Andy

give several engines the same number and that should hold you over until one of the lionel people come here with a different answer.

this might be a good question for the next legacy users group meeting.

Might want to re-title to say"5 Engine Train" or the dreaded "Lash-up".

I admit I clicked on here wondering what kind of odd situation you had encountered, thinking you meant 5 engines in the system.

if you want some the other direction you could have some one ID the other another ID I would think then lash up the two ID's 

Original TMCC programming had four positions,  Front, Rear facing forward, Rear facing backward, and Middle.  Key in the consist were lights, only front and rear headlights operated, only front and rear couplers operated.  I had done a (5) engine consist with no problem, TMCC, never tried more.    We did a couple of consist at Fort Pitt Highrail's train shows, with pushers as part of the consist, still never got beyond five. 

Note that (5) gets to the point where total circuit draw is 6 or 7 amps.  Punch it up to 6 or 7 units/locomotives, there is a chance, you are going to exceed the track circuit capacity, on most transformer controls. IMO. 

Mike CT posted:

Original TMCC programming had four positions,  Front, Rear facing forward, Rear facing backward, and Middle.   

This isn't exactly true.  There are two separate parameters that can be issued to TMCC engines.  In the first they can be assigned as Front, Middle, Rear, and Single Unit.  Though, to my knowledge, there is no way from the remote to set the single unit setting .  The second parameter is starting direction, and can be set to forward or reverse.  Any position can be set to any starting direction, so you can have a reverse faced front engine if you wanted.  

Mike CT posted:

Note that (5) gets to the point where total circuit draw is 6 or 7 amps.  Punch it up to 6 or 7 units/locomotives, there is a chance, you are going to exceed the track circuit capacity, on most transformer controls. IMO. 

Yep.  I expect that the 5 engine limit was put there on purpose to prevent operators from driving the current drain up too high on any one transformer.  It seems to me like a CYA 'feature' to keep people from complaining that the circuit breaker keeps popping or the fold back kicks in when they are running 7 or 8 engines in a "lash-up".  Other than with the TPC devices I've seen Lionel be pretty straight forward that a 10 amp limit is recommended on any track.  

JGL

We did a 9 diesel engine consist (did not want to say the word L____up) at our club layout that were all TMCC non-odyssey and were running at about 9 to 10 amps. It can be done, not sure with Legacy as we never tried.

When you think about it, there really isn't that much of a call for doing an MU with more than five locomotives, it's a pretty rare occurrence.

I saw 8 the other day, 5 in the lead, one in the middle, and 2 on the end.  If your train is long enough, and you do power districts, you can easily run more than 5 locomotives at a time in one train.  Also the limit gets you if we say you have 2 locomotives and want more than 3 VL sound cars in a train.  Add an aux tender or two and you're stuck.  I have just an O72 loop on a 12x6 table and have run up into the 5 limit and been upset.  I was only at 4 amps too.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

When you think about it, there really isn't that much of a call for doing an MU with more than five locomotives, it's a pretty rare occurrence.

What about the power moves?? Lol.  Over at Trainorders.com I see quite a few videos with more then 5 engines running in a "lashup" (sorry I had to).

The limit is 16, not 5 inthe Cab2 train builder. Where are you seeing the limitation?  Actually, from the loco point of view, you can have all 99 locos in a single train ID.  

Hmm.  I just sort of assumed that when folks said it was 5 they knew more than I did.  I could see that being an issue with all the sound cars and sensor cars and such.  With a limit of 16, I think that should be plenty. I started to think that 16 units was right about the limit of what a 9600 bps data stream could send in a timely manner, but had to scratch that thought, as the 'business end' of the commands are handled in the engine.  At least that is the case in TMCC.  Is it the same for Legacy, where the engine is programed how it should respond to a train command then all engines receive the same 3 byte command and interpret it for their position and direction on board?

JGL

SantaFeFan posted:

The limit is 16, not 5 inthe Cab2 train builder. Where are you seeing the limitation?  Actually, from the loco point of view, you can have all 99 locos in a single train ID.  

I think when I saw that you can "link" (using the chain link icon) 5 items per train I assumed that was for engines as well.  So it is possible to run 16 engines in an MU?  Thank you for the help.

My understanding from reading the Legacy manual when it's talking about Train Link was that 5 items, no matter what they are, was the limit for creating a train.  Perhaps a revision to the manual should include that the limit of 5 is only for items accessible with the Train Link button when talking about that button.  And under building trains, it should say that you can have up to 16 items in the train, only 5 of which can be accessible with the Train Link button.