Page 4
Changing the Locomotive's
Direction
without Turning off the Sound
You can use the power pack's direction switch while the
locomotive
is in neutral to
change
the
engine's direction.
•
Put the locomotive in neutral by bringing the throttle down below V-start
and
wait for the
locomotive to stop
9
.
•
Flip the direction switch after you hear the short air release but before you
hear
the
longer air release and the pump sounds
turn
on. During this short time
(3 seconds)
the
horn will not blow when you flip the direction switch.
•
Turn up the throttle anytime thereafter to operate the locomotive in the opposite
direction.
If you have waited until the pumps start
in
neutral and now wish to change direction, you can
either:
1.
Turn the power all the way off, change the direction switch and turn
the
power back on,
or,
2.
Flip the direction switch (the horn will come on) and then turn up the throttle. When the
locomotive starts to move in the opposite direction,
the
horn will stop automatically and
then hoot one more time
if
the direction is Forward for a total of two hoots. Or if the
direction
is
Reverse, the horn will hoot two more times for a total of three hoots
10
.
Note:
To prevent the first horn hoot from being too long, do not delay
in turning up
the
throttle after you have flipped the direction switch.
Standard Throttle Control™ (STC™) and Regulated Throttle Control™
(ATC™)
Quantum locomotives have two types of Analog throttle control available, Standard and Regulated
Throttle.
Both Standard Throttle Control
(STC) and
Regulated Throttle Control
(RTC)
will
apply
more power to the motor as a function of
increasing
track voltage beginning at the V-Start setting.
RTC includes a motor speed control feature that prevents the
locomotive
from reacting quickly
to
changes in voltage or minor
impediments such
as misaligned track joints, tight curves, rough
switches, etc. An engine under STC may come to an unrealistic halt from a raised track joint or
a
drop
in
voltage while the same engine under
RTC
will continue at the same speed. RTC operates
your
engine
as though
it
has the mass and inertia of a real locomotive; your engine will resist
changes
in
speed once it is moving and will resist starting up quickly if at rest. You will be able to
operate your locomotive at very slow prototypical speeds without having to adjust your
throttle
continually to maintain speed.
While small obstacles will not affect the engine's speed under RTC,
a
continual force will slow
your train down, just
like
the prototype. For instance, if your diesel locomotive encounters a grade
under RTC,
it
will eventually slow down. Providing more throttle will slowly accelerate it back to
speed.
The same engine under STC would quickly slow down or stop if
it
encountered a grade.
The type of throttle control also affects how your engine decelerates.
Under
STC, your engine will
respond quickly to a reduction in track voltage. Under RTC,
your
locomotive will decelerate slowly
as you bring the throttle down. If you bring the throttle down below
V
-
Start
,
the
engine
will slowly
come to a stop. You can, however, force an engine to slow down rapidly under RTC by bringing
the throttle down quickly; this reduces the available power to the motor speed control circuit
and
forces the speed to decrease faster than RTC would normally allow.
Once
the
locomotive
slows
down and regains normal RTC operation, it will
continue
to decelerate slowly according to its built-
in inertia. For instance, if your engine was running at top speed and you quickly reduced the track
voltage to just below V-Start, where the locomotive would normally be
stopped,
the engine's
speed would at first slow down rapidly as you reduced the available power to the motor, and then
would start decelerating at a rate determined by the RTC inertia and finally coast to a stop
.
STC and RTC
are
selected under Analog Programming (see
next section).
The default is RTC.
Engine Load
You can set your diesel
locomotive
to have any of 16 different loads (also
called
inertia or
momentum levels;
see
Analog Programming in next
section).
As
you
increase track voltage, the
motor is provided an increasing portion of that power which, depending on the
load
setting, will
gradually accelerate the locomotive more realistically until it reaches full speed. Level
O
is the
default, which is no load.
Under STC, the level
O
load
setting
will
allow
your
engine
to
accelerate
or stop as quickly as
the
internal flywheels
will
allow. Under RTC
,
level
O
will add no additional
load
to the
built-in inertia
already
provided by RTC. For any load
setting
from 1-15,
your
diesel locomotive will
take longer
to
change
speed
under either STC or RTC. At level 1, it will
take
approximately
15
seconds
more
to
achieve full
speed
at max
throttle
11
;
at
level
15,
it
will take over 3
•
minutes to
achieve
full speed.
In addition, at higher
load
settings,
your
engine
will decelerate more
slowly
as you
decrease
your
throttle.
'On
some power packs that have high internal resistance
,
the track voltage may rise slightly as
the locomotive
slows down and requires less power to operate.
As
the
engine slows, you may need
toreduce the throttle
a littlemore to remain below V-Start.
1
0
Standard prototype railroad signaling is two hoots beforestarting inforward and three hoots before starting in
reverse.
11
Some unloaded power packs produce excessive voltage at max throttle and will activate
the
Quantum high voltage circuit breaker. When this happens, your
engine will stopand emit aseries of
hoots
until the power is
reduced to
a lower voltage (see Troubleshooting, page/BJ.
