Observations On Vision Line Big Boys In TRain Mode

That's how all TMCC/Legacy locomotives will function in TR mode.  The lead locomotive has all the bell and whistles as it were, and the other locomotives pretty much only provide muscle.  Remember, you can still address the locomotive using ENG and get smoke adjustment and blow down while it is running in a TR.

As for programming for both to whistle, how'd you do that?

Since each VL-BB can peak at more than 4 amps with all the smoke units active, it may be a safety feature.   When we did the quad Big Boy run at NJ-HR, we had to turn off the smoke in all but the lead locomotive, otherwise we tripped the breakers immediately. 

Yep correct on the 2nd Big Boy I have whistle sound, but no whistle smoke. 

Could very well be John, had not thought of that.  Perhaps one of the Lionel guys will chime in and shed some light too.

When I designed the Whistle/Blow-down smoke controller for the VBB, I decided to allow the whistle to sound on the non-head unit following the"Sound Masking", but not trigger smoke (or blowdown) to conserve power.  While I could have let the whistle smoke switch control the effect, I decided the best all around solution was to simply turn off the smoke system for the whistle and blow-down when not the head unit.

I kinda' figured it might be a power issue, all those smoke units are real power hogs.   I won't often be double-heading the beast, so it's not a major concern.

Thanks for the reply Jon! 

Anything is possible!  When we look at the delivery of the functionality, we have to take into consideration the complexity of use from a remote perspective.  We try and balance features and complexity; along with consistent behavior over all of the product lines.

I believe if you double head the VBB locos in a TRain, and want blowdown or Whistle smoke on the 2nd loco, should be as simple as selecting the loco ID (ENGine ID) directly and activating the feature.  This is consistent with every command loco Lionel has ever produced.  Individual control is always possible, and TR mode functionality tries to give you the best all around experience with the TR operation.