Nothing for 3 days. Seems like I've gobsmacked everyone with my choices

Here's a clip I took a couple of months ago on our club layout, 'cheating' with a powered and unpowered Hymek (my dummy one has no lighting whereas my dummy class 121 has lights)

Class 35s double head a van train thrrough Heatherley by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

It's Bees Hill www.beeshillmodels.co.uk who does the dummy chassis for a few diesels. I have used them for a 20 and a 25 with no problems.

An overcomplicated solution, but it would be nice to have a 'clutch' of some sort on locos that can be double headed. To effectively disconnect the drive train and let them freewheel.

That would make it so they can be used powered or unpowered. Downside is a big chunk of mechanical overcomplicating for their 99% use case.

Quote from: EtchedPixels on February 06, 2026, 02:33:01 PMFor some locos (eg the old Farish 20/37/47 I think it is) there are resin replacement chassis kits originally done by BR Lines ...

There was a guy producing 3D printed dummy chassis for various locos.  I didn't pay much attention to who it was as British N not my area of interest.

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 February 06, 2026, 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 February 06, 2026, 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.