DCC locos on DC track - Runaways

[William Pinfold]

I've read in a few places that DCC locos enabled to run on DC track may in certain circumstances jump to full power and become a runaway. Do any decoder manufacturers implement controls that would prevent that from happening?

I have both a DCC layout and a DC layout that I would like to be able to use my DCC locos on (clearly never putting a DC loco on a DCC track). I set my chip (Dapol Imperium2 in Bachmann Baldwin 4-6-0) setting CV29 to enable DC running and the loco seems to run OK on my DC track in a simple test, but I would prefer that it did not risk running out of control.

Also, I read on DCCwiki that CV12 also needs to be set for DC power, but the text was ambiguous about how to set it (my CAB said CV12 was at 0 but the wiki seemed to say it should be 1). Dapol have not answered an enquiry about CV12 support and it is not mentioned on their literature. Any advice?

Thanks, Bill

[duttonbay]

My experience was that DCC locos with the bit set to allow operation on DC, sometimes ran-away when the DCC system was switched on. The decoder sees current on the track but the DCC signal has not yet commenced, and treated it as DC. Or at least something like that. All my locos now have the ability to run on DC disabled, so I am speaking from memories of probably 15 years ago. 

[William Pinfold]

Thanks DB, interesting. I will try to watch out for that. Bill