PC Gp38 Dead-in-tow Broken?

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by BahnHopper, Mar 19, 2021.

  1. BahnHopper

    BahnHopper New Member

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    I may have encountered a bug, but I wanted to confirm whether or not this behavior is correct. In the GP38 and similar freight trains in Sand Patch Grade, I tried to make a two-car unit have a dead-in-tow trail that the lead would pull. I tried to do this according to the following information on the wiki:

    Lead car-
    Engine Run: ON
    Generator Field: ON
    Control & Fuel Pump: ON
    Brake Cut-off Valve: FREIGHT
    MU-2A Valve: LEAD OR TRAIL

    Trail car-
    Engine Run: ON
    Generator Field: ON
    Control & Fuel Pump: ON
    Brake Cut-off Valve: CUT-OUT
    MU-2A Valve: LEAD OR TRAIL

    However, even though the three power switches in the trail car are all on, the trail car always seems to produce power when I control the lead car. The only way I've found to truly disable the engine control of the trail car is by turning the isolation switch. My understanding is that if the power switches in the trail car are on, then the trail car will ignore signals from the lead car and just remain idling. But that doesn't seem to ever happen, as power is always produced. Is this working as intended? Am I missing something here? Thanks!

    Edit: Also if anyone asks, I have radios disabled in both cars.
     
  2. Costpap

    Costpap Member

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    I tried to do something similar to this once in SPG during switching, as there's no real purpose to have a second GP38-2 producing power, but the additional braking force is more than needed in some cases. My locomotives were configured in the same way, except that that the MU-2A Valve was set to Trail 6 or 26 instead of Lead or Dead. The locomotive still produced power, at which point I didn't really bother with it any more and just set the Engine Run, Generator Field, Control & Fuel Pump switches to their normal position for a trailing unit in a MU configuration, off.
     
  3. BahnHopper

    BahnHopper New Member

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    Sounds like you experienced what I'm talking about then, with the trailing locomotive always producing power even with the switches all off. I suppose it's not a big deal to playing the game, but it is an immersion-breaker knowing that the power switches in trailing locomotives do not really matter. What makes SPG and freight so fun to me is the setup.
     
  4. DEXCON

    DEXCON Member

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    It is working fine. But you need to switch on the radio. On the fuse panel, there is a fuse for the radio. Then you need to go to the radio and actually switch it on. When completed, you will have all the units working. You only need to switch on the radio in the lead cab.

    [​IMG]

    It's not the highlighted button, it's the unit below you're searching for. Press either the DISP or PTT button (have a look when hovering your mouse over it, there should be a label saying switching it on or off). Hope this works. I am not able to show it right now so I hope this is clear enough.
     
  5. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Pull the main breaker in the fuse box; that will kill the engine. (for whatever reason, the Emergency Shutdown button doesn't seem to work, but the breaker always does). The train brakes will continue to function if properly set up.
     

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