12.2 Controlling Functions On Consisted Locomotives
Even though an individual locomotive is part of a consist and you can’t control
its speed and direction separately from the consist, you can still control its
function outputs independently as follows:
1. Press the LOCO Key
and select the address of the locomotive that
is a part of consist for which you want to control functions.
2. Press the LOCO Key
again to select the loco address to your
throttle. The speed value will show “cn” to remind you that you can
only control functions on the loco and not its speed.
3. Use the steps described above to turn on or off the functions on the
consisted loco.
4. When you are finished turning functions on or off for the consisted
loco, you can release the consisted loco from your throttle in prepa-
ration for running another loco address or you can leave it selected
on the throttle.
13.0 Multiple Unit Operations
Digitrax Command Stations offer offer three methods of consist control:
1. The
Basic Consisting
method is to program all the locomotives in a
consist to the same address and run them on one throttle. In this case
all the locomotives must be headed in the same direction, head to
tail, head to tail, head to tail. If you use decoders that allow you to
set the normal direction of travel of each loco, you can program
locos in a basic consist to run head to head and/or tail to tail. You
probably won’t use this method very often in your operations
because of its limitations. The basic method is the only method
available to most basic command stations. We mention it here only
because it is an option.
2. The
UniVersal Consisting
method handles consist information in the
command station and allows you to consist locomotives with any
DCC format decoder and analog locos as well. Locomotives can be
added to and removed from the consist in any orientation, head to
head or tail to tail. This method has the advantages of flexibility and
the ability to use all DCC decoders in consists. UniVersal Consisting
is the Digitrax preferred method of consisting.
3. The
Advanced Consisting
method handles consist information in
decoders that are capable of doing advanced consisting. When you
use advanced consisting, your options are somewhat limited because
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