How to drive a train with few forward gears

[hansjohnson]

Hello,
Some trains, like BR146, have many forward gears, and I know higher gear means more power.
But other trains, like 612, 477 have only a few forward gears on the power handle.
Could you please tell me what's the meaning of these gears, like Aus Ab Fahrt Auf, and how to drive them smoothly.
(I don't know is it correct to use "gear" here, sorry for my poor English.)

[Johannes]

In the documentation this is called an "increase/decrease control", look at section 2.7.2.2.2 for details.

[hansjohnson]

In the documentation this is called an "increase/decrease control", look at section 2.7.2.2.2 for details.

Thank you very much, now I know what's that.
But I still don't know how to keep the speed smoothly.

[jonathanp]

You have to think ahead and start reducing the power setting before you reach the maximum allowed speed. Watch how fast the speedometer moves and reduce the power until the speedometer stops moving.

Once you reach max speed all you have to do is adjust slightly when the gradient changes.

[Lorhat]

If it helps, you can think of this lever as a lever that itself regulates an imaginary throttle lever as you know it from a BR 146 for example. In a BR 146, the position of the throttle lever rather directly regulates how much power (i.e. 0-100%) you'd like to apply. With the increase/decrease control you would do this indirectly. If you move it to the "Auf" position, you gradually increase the position of this imaginary 0-100%-lever. If you move it to the "Ab" position, it's like you slowly pull back the "normal" throttle lever, until you have it in an appropriate position. Then put it into "Fahrt" position.

For holding speed you need to find a position (e.g. 50%) that is appropriate and then fine tune by moving the lever to the "Auf" position for a second and then into "Fahrt" again, so you gain some speed with now 55% power.

[hansjohnson]

Thank you very much! I'll try it.