Re: DCC Controller Features

: I've never heard of Linspire. : Is it a brand name like IBM/Dell/... or a completely non IBM computer. : : It used to be called "Lindows"

A local computer store packages Linspire with a computer as their "Least Expensive" computer.

You are getting just a tiny bit pedantic on the "control tracks" point.

Greg is having one if his fanciful daydream days. Talking complete trash just to get the feedback.

A Digitrax Zephyr is $160. There are cheaper entry systems, but that's where my experience lies, and it's expandable.

You buy a locomotive in either case, the decoder is $15 or $20.

So, the DCC cost is $180. Less if you don't ask the right questions ahead of time.

A DC power pack comparable to an entry level DCC system is at least $50 An Atlas Controller is about $7.50 per block. The Turtle Creek Central has what, six or eight blocks? So that's $50 or so to control all the necessary blocks. That doesn't include the blocks needed for making and breaking consists.

Call it $100 for DC -

Yes, DCC is more expensive than DC for a beginner, but not very much. Ceertainly not a prohibitive expense for someone who knows what they want to do. If $80 is is a big expense on the road to being a model railroader, maybe one would be better off giving it up and staring at the glass teat all night.

And how do train orders keep the trains separated? Can the engine read?

Right here.

How did you contact this group? There are people here who can provide DCC tech support.

All of the major DCC companies read and respond to email.

I note that you also have a telephone (I won't post the number here ) You could call the dealer who sold you the thing, he'll answer your questions.

I, on the other hand, build and wire such that any track has the potential to be operated on at any time - just like prototypical North American practice.

When your prototype put a steam engine in a siding to allow another train to pass, that engine in the siding could not be moved to the other end until the switches were again lined for the siding? How very quaint...

Wrongly.

There are multiple exceptions to this idea of "one block, one train" - the Class 1 railroads near my home often have multiple trains in the same block, without any problem.

Dependability is such that that will likely never happen. In ten years with commercial DCC, I've seen individual locomotives fail, but never a whole layout. It's extremely unlikely.

Of course, your analog system could fail just as easily, and for the same reasons. All the logic in the world won't help when you haven't the spares to repair it...or do you keep sand around for making your own semiconductors?

It keeps the trains separated in the same way that the signal or the staff keep trains separated. It gives sole occupancy rights to the section/track/block/... to the driver and his train. In no way does the lack of an order or a staff or a clear signal stop you, the loco driver, from setting off down the line. The receipt of the order or staff or clear signal tells the driver _which_ rule he should be taking into account. The lack of receipt of that clearance directs him to another rule.

Well no - if you change the turnout from the spur to the mainline then there's no way that you can run from the mainline into the spur. My way stops the prototypical move from the spur to derailing on the main line, but I think you'll find your loco tends to short out the traction current which is not particularly prototypical anyway.

If I want to make that move then I have to allow for it. eg see my "Shukerbahn" layout on my web page - the switch-back track at the bottom center of the track diagram. I had to add an extra Peco point motor switch to achieve that. (ie it's entirely automatic, dependent on turnout position.

Not to me! :-)

He calls me for advice. - really.

Do they have a lot of "cornfield meets"?

I keep a few semiconductors spare - they plug in.

Sounds like a crude block system. One train per block mostly.

Train

It is. It still follows the rule that one train only should be in each block unless you are using the flow the first train x minutes after it leaves.

Train orders

Different bits of paper, different names. The system is mostly a block system, locations are defined, just not called blocks.

>

The number of buttons that need's to be pushed is the key to the argument of which method of control produces the easiest operation. On my layout it is easier to separate and combine locomotives compared to doing it on my layout using DCC. I only have a maximum of 2 locomotives per train as per the prototype and era I model. Location is not a problem, because there are logical location these operations are always done at. In my case I uncouple at a clearance location where my uncoupling magnet is, and couple at the water column.

Which most people do not know. They know it looks interesting, walk into the hobby shop with some spare cash, and walk away with far less than they thought possible, and a bad case of sticker shock. Even for someone returning, as I am after a layoff of many years, my Tyco, (now Mantua) Generals were $19.95 and $34, kit and built, respectively. Methinks the price is a wee bit more now. (If they're even available.)

The Cary conversions to Pittsburgs cost $20 for the boiler and $14 for the detail kit, now add on 50%. (I know that because I'm converting the second now.)

Newer locos are beautifully done, I'm very impressed by some even from IHC, beautiful detail and they run very smoothly, but the prices are a bit steeper than I'm used to looking at. Track, scenery details, materials, it doesn't take too long before keeping the price down, or doing something else start to become the highest priority.

I know the feeling only too well of having some turkey tell me that what I'm doing will never be possible without, ________ (insert toy of choice here), at a cost that is either going to eliminate or delay something else that I would rather have. I also know it's nothing but a damned lie. The means by which a controlled amount of current gets from the rail to the motor is far less important than seeing that It gets there and isn't dissipated as heat because the mechanism in the lokey binds.

A twelve year old kid going to the hobby shop to buy his first train set doesn't need to hear that s**te, neither does anyone else. Absolute superiority of one system for all applications simply does not exist, never did and never will. The system that is better is simply the one you learn to work with. (And that twelve year old kid with his first train set today just might be tomorrows serious modeler, or not if he gets turned off right away.)

Hmmm. Strange as it might sound, the price of gas to drive 46 miles to a gliderport, on top of the other expenses was the increase that finally convinced me that the last hour I needed before taking the check ride for my license wasn't worth it. Seems that I'd rather be able to eat. The flushing sound you hear is the sound of $7000 going down the drain. The final straw can break the camels back.

Greybeard

No. I am correcting your misinterpretation of how prototypical safeworking systems function.

FCC don't allow that no more