I have been wondering how steam engines are double headed. Are they independently controlled? Or somehow link controlled? 
How about the braking? In our models, steam engines can be MU’d to act as one, but how about in the real world? Inquiring minds want to know! 
Sorry, I can not correct the typo in the Subject heading. My old fingers do not want to work today. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)
Joe Zullo said:
I have been wondering how steam engines are double headed. Are they independently controlled? Or somehow link controlled? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)How about the braking? In our models, steam engines can be MU’d to act as one, but how about in the real world? Inquiring minds want to know! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)
Joe
This summer I had the privilege of operating a double header in Poland. Over the course of the day I ran the lead locomotive, the trailing locomotive, and as a pusher at the rear of the train.
The throttle of each locomotive is run independently. One of the positions of the brake controller sets the locomotive up to be a slave. In that mode the front locomotive controls the brakes for the entire train.
On starting it is important that the lead locomotive signal its intention to start and the training locomotive confirms. That way the train starts smoothly.
European locomotives are a little easier to control when double heading because of the tight coupling. With the US locomotives you have to pay a lot more attention to managing the slack in the train.
Stan
Typically on the D&S and the C&T ( those are the only places that I have been involved personally ) When we double head ( 315 ) the smaller, lighter engine is in front of the heavier engine. There is no control link between the two or three engines. The two engineers communicate via whistle signals. The lead engineer is in control, and signals his intentions to the following engine. The following engine, then echoes back the signal as a verification of the act. Once underway, the following engineer syncs his engineer to the required needs, trying not to over pull, or push the other engine. This is just a seat of the pants feel between the engineers. Learned from years of experience.
Are they independently controlled? Or somehow link controlled?
They certainly can’t be MU’d like a diesel. Both engines would be independent, and the whistle signals would be used to indicate to the other cab what was going on.
Brakes, however, are different. Engine brakes are controlled by the engineer; train air brakes by one of the engines. Today I recall that UP has the steam fleet set for “pass-through” of the air brakes, so they can be positioned in a train and the lead diesel can control the train brakes (but not the steam engine brakes.) I don’t know if that was the case 50 years ago when double-heading was the norm. I doubt it - I suspect the back engine controlled the train brakes
Each steam engine is individually crewed, engineer, fireman, sometimes conductor and brakeman. Movements are coordinated by whistle signal.
Standard Railroad Signals. Go to Lesson 2.
That fact, plus ease of maintenance is what made the diseasal so attractive to the bottom line.
Thanks for the info fellows. That really answers my questions. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
