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I am running DCS and have a number of sidings that are electrically isolated center rail via a SPST switch.
I am wondering what the correct procedure would be when I want to turn on one of the sidings and use a DCS engine on that siding.
Can I just turn on the power to the siding and will the loco come up in command mode? My concern is turning on the power and having the loco taking off at high speed.
Thanks,
Hi Ed,Yes you can just turn on the power to the siding and the engine will come up in conventional mode because the engine has missed the "watch dog signal which goes out each time the channel's voltage is raised from zero. however no need to worry, proto-2s start up in neutral in conventional. To get the engine back in command mode just press "start up" with the dcs remote..
I like to use a "master toggle" on the input side of the tiu which comes in handy especially with lash-ups. To start the engine(s) in command mode one would turn on the siding with the SPST toggle and then use the master toggle to turn the power off/on to the input side of the tiu. Out goes the watch dog signal. Works great, however if the channel has other mainline tracks and trains running on it, bad idea.