Multiple-Unit

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In Derail Valley there are two types of multiple-unit vehicles (MU for short). "By design" are the MUs designed for permanent connection of multiple vehicles, such as steam locomotives with their tenders, or lengthy people movers. "By cable" are the MUs that are connected manually by a driver, with an MU cable.

Some motorized rail vehicles come equipped with the "by cable" MU support, with a blue cable on either end. This cable can be connected to another vehicle’s MU cable, in a handshake manner, similar to how air hoses connect. When vehicles are MU connected, they operate in unison, controlled from a single locomotive cab, by a single driver, as if they were a single vehicle. This feature is available on some electric, diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic locomotives or railcars. The vehicles must have their engines and breakers turned on individually for the MU connection to work properly.

MU automatically adjusts for vehicle orientation, so it is possible to have some of the vehicles be reversed in a multiple-unit setup. Headlights take this into account too. It is possible to remotely control a locomotive in a MU setup, too.

Beware that combining different kinds of vehicles via MU may result in asynchronous behavior, and lead to one unit overheating, losing traction, spending more fuel or experiencing something else differently than another unit. To help with this, alerts from any of the affected units propagate to all MU connected instruments.

To connect vehicles together with multiple-unit cables, the driver must own the Multiple-Unit license first.

Installing a wireless MU controller gadget allows connecting MU-capable vehicles wirelessly.