After two weeks of messing around with my ProtoThrottle and remapping functions with my ESU LokProgrammer, I have come up with a method to consist locomotives that does not require skipping back and forth between locomotive addresses to operate some functions on all consisted units (e.g., Throttle, Drive Hold, Dynamic Braking, and Independent Braking) but only the lead locomotive for other functions (e.g., bell, horn, lights). This took some head-scratching to figure this out, and there's only one concession. More on that later. The first thing that you must realize is that directional lighting is not desired on the ProtoThrottle, so before consisting, each locomotive in my fleet has been (or will be) remapped for front headlights (F0), dimmed front headlights (F3), rear headlights (F6), and dimmed rear headlights (F7), to operate the lights on the ProtoThrottle's headlight knobs when running a locomotive individually.
Let's get started. Here's our consist: Seaboard System SD40-2 No. 8013 (the leader) and Louisville & Nashville SD40-2 No. 3579 (the trailing unit). You can see that the leader has the front headlights lit (but not rear lights) and both units have their numberboards lit. The trailing unit does not have any headlights on when running the train in the forward direction. I've got these locomotives mapped, so that I can turn the lights off on No. 8013 and turn the front headlights on No. 3579 to run in the other direction, by using the front headlight knob on the ProtoThrottle to control 8013's headlights and the rear headlight knob to control 3579's headlights. Again, the pair operate together well (they're speed-matched), and the independent brake works on both, too, when stopping the train.
Here's how I did this: Looking at the LokProgrammer screens for No. 8013 first, I consisted the locomotives on the LokProgrammer under address number 127. You can see that I activated the following functions in a consist for 8013. It's important to note that the functions are different on each locomotive to get the lights to work as desired (see below):
Functions to operate in a consist for No. 8013:
F0: Front headlight
F1: Bell
F2: Horn
F3: Dimmed Front Headlight
F4: Dynamic Braking
F5: Numberboards (a side note, my engines don't have ditch lights, so I use the ditch light setting on the ProtoThrottle knob to activate the numberboards instead. On other units,"ditch lights" on the ProtoThrottle knob controls a Mars Light or a Gyra Light.)
F6: Rear Headlight (OFF!- we have no need for these lights in a consist)
F7: Dimmed Rear Headlight (OFF!- we have no need for these lights in a consist)
F8: Sound (on/off)
F9: Drive Hold
F10: Independent Braking
F11: Radiator Fan
Here's the Function Mapping page for No. 8013. This engine is mapped fairly standard for my fleet, except, remember, that I did not activate F6 (rear headlights) and F7 (dimmed rear headlights) in a consist, so that when the rear lights are activated on the ProtoThrottle these lights will not come on:
Below is the LokProgrammer pages for No. 3579. In this first picture, you can see that I also consisted this locomotive under number 127 but to run in reverse, since it's back-to-back with No. 8013. Here's where it gets weird. To make the front headlights work in reverse on No. 3579, I only activated the rear lights with the front headlights remapped to these functions (using F6 (high beam) and F7 (dimmed)) on No. 3579:
Functions to operate in a consist for No. 3579:
F0: Front headlight (OFF!- but they will operate under F6 (see below))
F1: Bell (OFF!- this is what prevents both engines' bells from sounding in a consist)
F2: Horn (OFF!- this is what prevents both engines' horns from sounding in a consist)
F3: Dimmed Front Headlight (OFF!- but they will operate under F7 (see below))
F4: Dynamic Braking
F5: Numberboards
F6: Rear Headlights (actually the front headlights on high beam (see below))
F7: Dimmed Rear Headlight (actually the dimmed front headlights (see below))
F8: Sound (on/off)
F9: Drive Hold
F10: Independent Braking
F11: Radiator Fan
To make the front headlights on the trailing unit function in the reverse direction, you have to remap the front headlights and dimmed front headlights to F6 and F7, respectively, on the trailing unit only. This way, when the rear headlight knob is activated on the ProtoThrottle, only the front headlights on the trailing unit come on, allowing me to run the consist in both directions and control the headlights appropriately.
The only concession, as hinted above, is that the horn and bell can only be activated on the lead locomotive, regardless of direction. In reverse, there's no way to get the bell and horn to work on the trailing unit, so these sound effects will still come from the leader in reverse. A little hokey, perhaps, but, since the speakers in these units are in the back of the shell where the radiators are supposed to be located, it's not completely from the other end of the consist and tolerable.
I hope this helps others. It occurred to me while typing this post that you could easily add a third locomotive or more. Just deselect the lights, bell, and horn functions in the consist to prevent these sound effects for the middle locomotive(s). Everything else would work for the middle units, e.g., prime mover sounds, throttle, and braking.
Whew! This post took a while, so I hope it's easily understandable. If anyone can improve this, or come up with a solution for the horn and bell that doesn't require a trip to the programming track to visit the LokProgrammer, feel free to add to this conversation.
DFF
