Double heading trains on DC – the ‘dummy loco’ debate

[Newportnobby]

AFAIK, DCC users can 'speed match' locos using their gizmos so this really applies to DC users

Speed matching for me is putting two locos on an oval of track and seeing whether one catches up with the other. Even if they're close, it's still not something I tend to do. Just take a motor out of one of them, I hear you say. Simples.
I've never had the body off a loco in all my 45+ years in N gauge.

Having said that, an exception seems to be Farish's Blue Pullman which is awesome.

Now Dapol, bless em, did produce a dummy Hymek and a dummy class 121 (both of which I have) so I could play out a scenario of a steamer rescuing a broken down diseasel (or vice versa in very extreme circumstances, you understand )

Let's face it, there have been some shockingly unreliable diesels manufactured in the past – witness class 17s and 28s to mention but two (real ones, I mean, not the models).

Many moons ago, when Dave Jones was bringing out his class 17 he was actually going to sell them as twin packs, one powered, one not and I had my name down for that, especially having seen them in the flesh at the Stafford Show when DJ Models attended. That pack never came to fruition when EFE launched the class 17.

We are told the price differential between a powered model and unpowered model just makes it not worth doing as the motors are cheap as chips and it's easier to manage stocks when there's only one version. That basically says to a DC user if you buy two powered units and they don't match – tough (or remove the motor from one)

I would have loved a twin pack of the class 17 and the class 28,  and I dare say if ever a class 21 was released so would purchasers of that particular class. Our models are all hand built so, potentially, every one varies from another in some respect. The chances of getting two that run close enough to double head are not high.

I'd be interested to hear other views