I regularly double head my locomotives and have done for years with no problem.

There are exceptions of course where a power/speed mismatch is obvious eg a Castle with a Dapol small prairie  or pannier or when one of the locomotives is much lighter than the other eg Dapol M7.

I also have no problems when running modern image with, for example, a pair of 66s either double heading or top and tailing.
I also often run special trains with a King or Castle at the head and a 66 bringing up the rear.

Or am I missing the point?
Are we only talking about genuine dummy locomotives?

Didn't Dapol/Kernow get a roasting for their recent class 50 GBRF pair, when one 50 was unpowered?
Maybe it was the £250 (DC) - £300 (DCC fitted) original price point that was to blame?

Bob G

I thought I'd open the floodgates of Rapido Peaks (again) as these both arrived within the last 24 hours.

Sherwood Forester


Great Gable


Twin Peaks


Front end comparison - Rapido D4 (L) vs Farish 44008 (R) - fittingly, the two surviving class members


The Rapido models are absolutely beautiful. 45060 was my 45/0 'machine' back in my mainline bashing days, and I'm a shareholder in D4, so it makes sense to have models of them.

Quote from: Newportnobby on Yesterday at 02:25:06 PMAs a continental modeller, do the manufacturers offer 'dummy' locos?

There have been a handful over the years. Minitrix BR 155 electric locos come to mind. That had a solid drawbar between the two locos (hence the missing coupling in Hatton's photo)



I think Minitrix or Brawa did a twin pack of "Ludmilla" diesels. [edit] Minitrix


One of Fleischmann's earliest N gauge sound locos - a permanently coupled pair of BR 218 diesels, with the sound decoder and speaker in the dummy loco.  I have one of these, originally the UK Fleischmann importer's demo model which he gave to me when I bought a DCC starter set   It had had its main drive gears removed and sat on a static length of track. Simple to restore to full working order. Must be at least 20 years old now.
 

Quote from: Newportnobby on Yesterday at 02:25:06 PMAs a continental modeller, do the manufacturers offer 'dummy' locos?

European ones not so much in my experience except for things like railcar sets or units with two power cars one motorised (so like most of our HST models). There are some though.

Japanese though there are lots of unmotorised sets both as add ons to powered sets, and also stuff that is sold only as unmotorised collector stuff but which has optional motorising kits.

For some locos (eg the old Farish 20/37/47 I think it is) there are resin replacement chassis kits originally done by BR Lines so you can just pick up a bodyshell, paint it for one end of something like the South Wales top/tail sets and avoid having to buy an old loco.

I've stripped the motors out of a few trashed models because busted ones are/were cheap on ebay. The plastic chassis ones like some of the Dapols are really easy to work with as you can just chop them about. The metal chassis ones often need more violence and it can be easier to just keep the bogies and build a new chassis out of plasticard then glue the battery box on.

I try and keep the pickups because then you can fit sound and keep lights and stuff working. I've got an old Farish class 20 pair that's one sound, one motorised and a GBRF 73 pair done the same way but by adding back bits Dapol removed from the dummy version. Also a dummy hymek with sound and there's space to use cheaper OO gauge aimed sound chips.

For both motorised providing they are similar-ish speeds it seems to work but DCC or DC you have the problem of one end stalling on dirt on a long train and the whole lot derailing.

Quote from: ntpntpntp on Yesterday at 02:17:49 PMTotally surprised. you say you've never had the body off a loco!  I've been dismantling and servicing my own locos since my Triang OO days when I was about 10 in the early 1970s.  Nothing to be scared of

There is when you're a cack handed idiot with 'shaky hand syndrome'!!

As a continental modeller, do the manufacturers offer 'dummy' locos?

Generally I'd say to create a dummy loco remove more than just the motor:  also pickups and as much of the gearing as you can to minimise drag, plus any removable weights.

If your pair of locos are reasonably well matched for speed across the range then it's fine to double-head.  Mismatched locos will of course cause bucking and dragging which is no good for the mechanisms nor coupling reliability.

Totally surprised. you say you've never had the body off a loco!  I've been dismantling and servicing my own locos since my Triang OO days when I was about 10 in the early 1970s.   Nothing to be scared of

Thanks, Martyn. I reckon I could run a couple of class 24s as well , but other than that you've either remotored or removed a motor. I'm not capable of either.
It's still a case of, if DC, do it the hard way

Maybe not quite what you're looking for, Mick.

I swapped Poole motors for Tramfabriek in my pair of Poole cl 20s, and they run fine together. Much more control, no speeding up and slowing down on gradients.

I also run a split chassis 25 with a de-motored Poole one.

I have also a pair of 24s which are pretty close and sometimes double head.

And I did have a pair of Ivatt 2mt moguls which ran well together (one is now under an LNER L1).

All on dc.

Martyn