Does anybody here have a DD40 Locomotive with two motors? If so how is it running and is it very powerful?
I've got 3 of the HO scale Athearn DD-40's that are miscalled on the name... They are actually a DD-35! Athearn jumped the gun when they first made them and the one EMD made was a DD-35 and naturally the smaller counter parts GP-35 and GP-40's closely resembled each other so Athearn went and made then as the first one was which the real one was actually a DD-35.... Onto the the loco now, I have 3 of them daul motored! and all runs well I have had to remove that coupling drive shaft between the 2 motors although... Not because anything went wrong but I wanted a flywheel on the drives so... But mine overall each separately run well. I have had lashed all 3 up "6 motors" to one long train and they ran and pulled really good... With low noise and high power from some shimming the worm gears and done a few Athearn "upgrades" to the drive shafts that lead into the trucks to keep the noise down and get rid of the excess play in the slip joints in the drive shafts...
How many Cars can a Dual Motor DD40 pull? And What is the maximum speed that can be achieved with that Locomotive?
I had up to 28 cars coupled to one DD-40 at a time and with all 3 I exceded counting but I know their was around 45 to 50 on level track! Speed is a hard one to determine correctly. With all the things that can hinder the speed of the loco through electrical conductivity... Clean track and partially clean wheels a bad electrical connection etc it can all slow down an engine while pulling and not enough to see it with the eye but in the top end it will show... the motor will get hot or warmer the normal and the lights can dim and brighten... This is all due from electrical contact and effects the motors preformance and then to realize theirs not just one motor working! You have to think about which motor is running which is lacking power and all which will slow the other motor down... So speed rating can be quite interesting and maybe even difficult...
DD-35A's not DD-35's Actually, they would be DD-35A's as they had cabs. The DD-35 was a cabless B unit. I have pics of both. Contact me off list if you would like to see the difference. I could not insert any images here because the insert image requires a url, and they are on my PC. Jim
