Tim your presentation , explanation and sharing your own charts is excellent. You make a great teacher. You've help me tie the ESU v5 to Protothrottle. Much appreciated JP in the UK
Wow Tim. What a treat to have a real engineer describing set up on a model rr. i started my ho hobby train set up as a teenager, then life happened. Now, i am retired and might start over in N scale. Thanks so much
Hi Tim, Excellent video. I really enjoyed the opening and closing sequence where you were in front of the locomotive. Thanks for explaining your settings for the decoder and the ProtoThrottle. I use a flattened speed curve on my locomotives so that you get a speed increase for the first 5 notches and then only the prime mover sound notches up for the upper 3 notches. That allows you to "play the throttle" to simulate moving a heavy load without having to use drive hold. On my small switching layout it works out great set up that way. That is one of the good things with ESU Loksound decoders, you can set them up how you prefer to operate based on your needs. It is amazing how fast 18 scale MPH looks when you are running on your layout. I am already looking forward to your next video.-Tom
Thanks Tom! Yes, 18 mph is plenty fast enough. If my layout was a pure switching layout I would probably do the same thing and top the speed off in notch 5 at 12 mph. I agree that it is just another thing I like about ESU decoders and the LokProgrammer. I’m actually going to be programming some dedicated yard units at some point and will probably do just that. Tim
Excellent and informative video Tim! I need to do this with my locos. Thanks for taking the time to share your steps. Nothing beats seeing the real thing behind you. Love the SD40-2's
The SD40-2 is my favorite locomotive Tim!!!!! Nice video on speed matching, I have about 55 HO Conrail units to do from Athearn, Atlas and Walthers!!!!!
Dang Tim. No wonder why your equipment are matched so well. Outstanding. Truly thanks for the time and effort you did to make this post. When I get the new extension in,I'll be able to mu and this info will help tremendously.
Tim, great job on the video! I have always been hesitant to do the whole speed matching thing,, just like” ehh, that’s good enough” but after seeing your video you don’t make it seem like a visit to the dentist minus the pain meds. I will definitely be using your notes. One tip, if you have the same sound file in multiple locos in the same consist you adjust the “ sound speed” of the prime mover so they won’t be in phase together sounding like one loco. So when the model consist rolls by you will be able to distinguish each locos prime mover. On Lok programmer I think it is in sound settings tab. Keep up the awesomeness!! Greg
Thanks Greg! It’s a lot of experimentation but once you get it dialed in it makes a world of difference. It is just a matter of tweaking the speed steps either up or down until you get the speed you want for each step. Also, it’s important before you do each speed step to get the min speed and the max speed set first.
Tim, I will sure I get the min and max set first. I know now I have accel set at 120, but my lok sounds are select/direct micro boards. I will have to see if I get the same results as your V5’s. Thanks
@@SeaboardCentral can’t wait!!, I am going to hold my breath, 🤪. I noticed how you put the reverser in the middle/neutral while you were braking,, old habits die hard. How long has three step protection been around? On the CNW during the 90’s no such thing. If we had to make up air, we told the engineer “ making weenies”
Great video Tim I’ve been looking for this kind of information to set up my SD 40- 2W’s what was the reason you set your top speed at 18 miles an hour just because of layout size or is that prototypical for in Yard? Thanks for sharing this info.
Thanks Don. I set my top speed at 18 due to the grades and curvature on the line. My max speed for yard is 10 mph just like the prototype. I find that on a model railroad with our tighter curves anything over 18 just looks ridiculous and toylike. Tim
@@SeaboardCentral OK that makes sense thanks Tim and I thought I’d mention I really like your track plan for the new layout will be fun to watch your progress
Hey Tim! I just got my new Proto Throttle yesterday ( an early BD gift from my awesome wife). I made a lot of head way today in programming it with TSU’s and ESU’s. My question is how do I program the throttle to work with advanced consisting using CV’s 19, 21, and 22? I can get it to work using NCE’s advanced consisting, but I prefer the Cv19, 22, and 21 because of greater control of each loco function. Any ideas? Thanks, Greg
Way to go Greg! Congratulations on getting your new PT. I would recommend going to the ISE website and look for the tips they show how to set your PT up for your specific situation. I know it is different depending on decoder brand. That’s one reason I only use one brand. There’s so many differences between the decoder manufacturers. I also just use the NCE advanced consisting for my layout. Tim
This is great! Question though... I don't use the Proto Throttle. Would you make your settings different if only using the NCE ProCab throttle? Thanks!
Thanks! I actually sometimes use the NCE throttle on the road freights. The ProtoThrottles are used for the switchers mostly. The function map I use would probably be the same. I know some might set theirs up different depending on what works for them. That’s the great thing about the LokProgrammer, it lets you customize the functions any way you want it.
A question about the braking values. Is there an advantage to using all three brake settings simultaneously as in your example, compared to using only one brake setting at a higher value. Since the brake 1,2 and 3 work cumulatively, using your example would simply setting brake 1 to 238 achieve the same result?
Good question and would be worthy of experimentation. I haven’t tried it. Although I do know the way I have it set up works great and achieves the kind of realism I am after. Thanks for your comment. Tim
Great video, thanks for sharing! I just got a PT and I am in learning about all the things that it can do. I am running with ESU Loksound v5 Decoders, tho I am trying it with N scale. One question if I may - do you disable the 'emergency brake' function on the PT? I haven't changed any of my PT or ESU decoder brake settings yet (I do set CV3 and CV4 to maximums), but I find that by default the loco stops too abruptly when I push the brake handle all the way to the right. Is that a prototypical brake behavior? (Side Note - since I just have a small shelf layout, I am playing with using a separate/stationary decoder connected to a subwoofer for a deeper bass sound. Still need to get the sounds to sync a little better, but here is the link... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oxz_DUt6wdo.html ). ;)
Congratulations on getting your new ProtoThrottle! What a game changer, especially for switching operations. I do in fact disable the emergency brake feature on my PTs since I treat the brake as the same as the independent (or engine brake). As a professional, when it comes to switching, the independent is what is mainly used. Once you do that you need to make sure you have the brake setting on your decoder set up to be able to work when you have your deceleration value set to max. The settings I came up with in this video are fairly prototypical. Be sure to tune in to my channel next Sunday. I will be doing another video on making a decoder update for my switchers. Tim
28 speed steps is the default setting and is perfectly fine to get the realism I am after. If you don’t have one. I highly recommend a LokProgrammer to program the ESU decoders. It is a great investment and I can’t imagine programming without it now.
Hi Bob, I try to make my models look and perform as realistic as I can. With the tight curves on a model railroad I have found anything faster just makes it look toylike and destroys the realism in my opinion. Plus as a prototype locomotive engineer I am limited to 10 mph max on everything off the mainline anyways. Thanks for the comment. Tim
