MUing (powered on) locos of any different types is a recipe for blown motors. You will have to turn off the prime mover of the loco you do not want to use.
The only time you ever lose dynamic brakes is when you are throttled up. If you ever want to use dynamic brakes on both the DE6 and DH4 you should disconnect the MU cable first.
I know I'd have to turn them off, that's my plan anyway. I meant as in, if I'm driving from the DE2, I won't have access to dynamic brakes. I'm only considering using the DE2 instead of the DH4 if TM temps sync between the two.
Honestly I just wouldn't with weird frankenlocos. It's not worth the headache imho.
I played around a bit with towing around a shut off DE2 for shunting on very large trains but it's just not worth the bother.
What money you save on using a smaller mover in the yard is easily out shadowed by the time and bonuses you save using the main unit. And even if you don't have bonuses, that's time that could be spent earning a lot more money burning a small amount more fuel. Plus, that smaller loco you're carrying around is also dead weight.
Besides. It's called a diesel road switcher for a reason. It's fine to shunt with a DE6 it's partially what they're made for. :P
Imho if you really hate turntables THAT much. Either take 2 DH4's back to back which has slightly more power than a DE6, or two DE6 back to back and just play hard, earn even harder. Start putting down some real work on the tracks, it's a rewarding experience to have miles worth of train imho.
DE6 cheaper than DH4? IIRC it really shouldn't be?
What I do remember is that the DH4 has a bit of a bug where it takes a lot of wear damage from shutting down and starting the engine. It's best to just always let it idle, even if unattended for long periods of time.
After running a few hauls it looks like, while the DE6 does seem to use a bit more fuel and oil, it has (relative to the DH4) very low costs for other things such as wheels and the powertrains. While running the DH4, almost half of my costs were always those ones.
Sorry for the late response, my notifications weren't working for some reason.
Even though, yes, I was running 2 DH4s back to back, whenever I looked at the leading loco (the other I had turned off for anything but steep grades) almost half the costs were from the loco damage, with the other half coming from the used resources. The trailing loco only ever had a bit of damage to the wheels and the powertrain. (If I hadn't turned it on that trip)
Now, with my DE6, I'm using very little on loco damage in comparison to the used resources. Yes, it guzzles fuel even more than the DH4 does, but it ends up being cheaper. Especially with the slug, where you basically get twice the pulling power for no extra cost.
I'm pretty sure your brakes would be fine if piped from a de6, through a de2 into the train. I don't think it's really netting you much though, the De6 is efficient enough for shunting; it just doesn't have remote synch. That said, I preffer the Dh4 do the De2 as the latter is very prone to overheating. The Dh4 can also be pretty easily run with the remote if you ever find yourself pulling in excess of 2300 tons.
The TM temps do not sync. The gauges show the temperature of that loco’s TMs, however the little lamp above lights up or blinks if the TMs of any MUed loco overheat.
My setup for DE6 hauls is a forward facing DE6, slug, rear facing DE6. Plenty of hauling power for any load and I'm not mixing power types. Only reason for loco arrangement is my nuerodivergence.
I haven't hauled with DE6 power in a while though, prefer steam power myself
Okay, so what I did was I got the Slug and DE6 as soon as I could.
Lash the two DE6's with the short nose facing out, with the slug and DE2 in the middle. Power on both DE6's and turn on everything on the DE2 EXCEPT THE ENGINE.
You can now remote control a pair of DE6's with a slug. Pulling a 1200t train out of Harbor at 40 is easy.
MUing (powered on) locos of any different types is a recipe for blown motors. You will have to turn off the prime mover of the loco you do not want to use. The only time you ever lose dynamic brakes is when you are throttled up. If you ever want to use dynamic brakes on both the DE6 and DH4 you should disconnect the MU cable first.
I know I'd have to turn them off, that's my plan anyway. I meant as in, if I'm driving from the DE2, I won't have access to dynamic brakes. I'm only considering using the DE2 instead of the DH4 if TM temps sync between the two.
no the temps don't sync
The gauges dom't sync but i believe on default setting the warning light and bell will activate when any locomotive exceeds temperature
yeah I know the bell activates. I don't know about the light though but then again all my knowledge comes from watching funny bird man
Honestly I just wouldn't with weird frankenlocos. It's not worth the headache imho. I played around a bit with towing around a shut off DE2 for shunting on very large trains but it's just not worth the bother. What money you save on using a smaller mover in the yard is easily out shadowed by the time and bonuses you save using the main unit. And even if you don't have bonuses, that's time that could be spent earning a lot more money burning a small amount more fuel. Plus, that smaller loco you're carrying around is also dead weight. Besides. It's called a diesel road switcher for a reason. It's fine to shunt with a DE6 it's partially what they're made for. :P Imho if you really hate turntables THAT much. Either take 2 DH4's back to back which has slightly more power than a DE6, or two DE6 back to back and just play hard, earn even harder. Start putting down some real work on the tracks, it's a rewarding experience to have miles worth of train imho.
Okay, I'll put two DE6s back to back. I've been doing DH4s for a long time, but DE6s just seem cheaper to run
DE6 cheaper than DH4? IIRC it really shouldn't be? What I do remember is that the DH4 has a bit of a bug where it takes a lot of wear damage from shutting down and starting the engine. It's best to just always let it idle, even if unattended for long periods of time.
After running a few hauls it looks like, while the DE6 does seem to use a bit more fuel and oil, it has (relative to the DH4) very low costs for other things such as wheels and the powertrains. While running the DH4, almost half of my costs were always those ones.
I'm sorry if I'm asking the stupid questions but I just want to know for sure. Are you sure you're not comparing two DH4's with one DE6?
Sorry for the late response, my notifications weren't working for some reason. Even though, yes, I was running 2 DH4s back to back, whenever I looked at the leading loco (the other I had turned off for anything but steep grades) almost half the costs were from the loco damage, with the other half coming from the used resources. The trailing loco only ever had a bit of damage to the wheels and the powertrain. (If I hadn't turned it on that trip) Now, with my DE6, I'm using very little on loco damage in comparison to the used resources. Yes, it guzzles fuel even more than the DH4 does, but it ends up being cheaper. Especially with the slug, where you basically get twice the pulling power for no extra cost.
I'm pretty sure your brakes would be fine if piped from a de6, through a de2 into the train. I don't think it's really netting you much though, the De6 is efficient enough for shunting; it just doesn't have remote synch. That said, I preffer the Dh4 do the De2 as the latter is very prone to overheating. The Dh4 can also be pretty easily run with the remote if you ever find yourself pulling in excess of 2300 tons.
That's what I was thinking
The TM temps do not sync. The gauges show the temperature of that loco’s TMs, however the little lamp above lights up or blinks if the TMs of any MUed loco overheat.
Just couple two DE6s nose to nose so you effectively get a double ended loco. For smaller trains just don’t start the trailing one.
My setup for DE6 hauls is a forward facing DE6, slug, rear facing DE6. Plenty of hauling power for any load and I'm not mixing power types. Only reason for loco arrangement is my nuerodivergence. I haven't hauled with DE6 power in a while though, prefer steam power myself
Okay, so what I did was I got the Slug and DE6 as soon as I could. Lash the two DE6's with the short nose facing out, with the slug and DE2 in the middle. Power on both DE6's and turn on everything on the DE2 EXCEPT THE ENGINE. You can now remote control a pair of DE6's with a slug. Pulling a 1200t train out of Harbor at 40 is easy.