Re: DCC Controller Features

25 years ago, I took flying lessons...after 30 hours, the realization that the expense was never going to end, and would never be convenient, led me to toss it all and look for another hobby.

Thing about model railroading is, you /can/ find a stopping place....

Not necessarily...

Then why configure your layout to do just that?

Not successfully, maybe. But you can try.

Sometimes, but not always.

Another added complication and expense...

Bar the South Carolina disaster last week (which was not a control system failure), no, not really.

>

That's right, the road locomotives were stationary until the switchers cleared running track.

Only If you use manual hands on uncoupling. With correct placement of isolation blocks DC does the same with less button pushing.

Depends on the DC system as to how many switches if any are required to be manually thrown. Automatic block control requires no manual switches beyond what a DCC layout would have.

Newton the expert shows his ignorance of DC control systems.

You can buy DC controllers of many styles.

How thick is the manual? How much time have you spent installing DCC decoders? You still need to wire turnouts and signals and electrical blocks.

other than the loco

with incorrectly set

a model train.

normal operating

Don't the drivers need to physically get the train order? In practice as density increases staff working was replaced with more modern block systems such as the old block telegraph on double track lines, and the more modern automatic block systems.

Still less toggles to operate compared to the button pushing required to select each locomotive, and add or remove them from the consist. With DC the on off switch for the uncoupling magnet can be the same as the block isolation switch. So if you want hands free uncoupling operationally DC is easier, unless all your locomotives are fitted with DCC activated uncouplers.

After pressing lots of buttons and using the big pole and hand.

Of which, you are a master at ;-) lol lol lol

About four hours more than I have. Costs would have gone down from "impossible" to "outrageously expensive" once I had he license, I had my own plane, but one still has to pay for tiedown, annual inspection, tows, and insurance. Fun while it lasted, but way too expensive.

I hope I run into it pretty soon. Todays order was 60 feet of flex track, tomorrow, last weeks order should come in. As soon as I move some machines, bench material order goes out to the lumber yard. All because of thinking twenty years ago, "I'll never use this again." I did keep all of my locos, most of the rolling stock, but most of which won't fit in with my present ideas. Starting in any hobby is expensive, and returning to one can be even more so, because you have an idea of what you have to do to reach that end. (And how much stuff you already have that doesn't fit now.)

Greybeard.

You can build ALL OF THAT for $ 19.99 plus tax.

Amazing. You need a reality check on DCC prices.

Bill Dixon

Dear Mr. Flynn, Since at this point I do not consider you a troll, would you like more specific details on how North American railroading was and is conducted in non-signaled and automatic block territory, where the rules governing operation under train order and timetable are in effect? It is nothing at all like the way you have described the operation of your model railway, and I do not see how it will benefit you, other than to satisfy your curiosity. Never the less, if you want to know, it can be arranged. The only stipulation is that when you read the rules, and they are explained, you must not come back and insist that it cannot possibly be run that way. If you need more information or still cannot understand, that is fine. But if you start insisting that what we do is impossible to do, or stupid, that will be the end of it. The system can clearly be shown to operate as intended. Your friend Mark Newton seems to know enough to explain it to you, but I, and a few others, have years of actual North American experience, and so know firsthand how to use the systems. If you are not interested in this information, no response is needed. I will say nothing further unless you express an interest.

CH

and for $19.95 plus tax, I'm going to get everything from the wall outlet to the loco? Reality check, that first one is expensive. Much more expensive than surplus transistors and switches. Reality check is that for the low sum of ony $50 more than I just paid for a pacific and eight heavyweight cars, I could have the DCC setup for one loco.

You are ASSuming I have the other components of the DCC system, which I do not. To put one loco on DCC without the rest of the components would be rather stupid, wouldn't it? I believe Con-Cor makes static models that would serve me just as well as a loco with DCC in it without the rest of the system.

And yes, for under $21 I can build what I've described. But don't assume that I'm thinking pulse, momentum or anything else, the only function I'm concerned with is a controlled amount of current to the block that the loco is on at the moment. Very obsolete, very old types of transistors that are very cheap can do that very well.

Greybeard

There are always exceptions - if you keep dragging in the exceptions as if they were the norm then this thread might go on for ever.

The point I have been trying ... trying to get across to you and Mark and ... whoever hasn't put me on their "to be ignored" list is: The railway is not run by the loco driver, it is run by the entire chain of command of the loco driver and the controlling "mechanisim". (I use that term to include observers, decision makers, rule book, time table, information dissemination system, Uncle Tom Cobley and all without exception)

My follow-on point which never made it through the bickering is: If you want to operate an analogue layout by direct cab control (that's the driver directly controlling his chosen loco by remote control) then you can, through analysing the operations of the "mechanisim" arrive at a system which separates the loco driver from control of the railway. (which is largely the intent of that prototype mechanisim)

Because the "mechanisim" is going to differ from prototype to prototype, the model equivalent is also going to differ. I can (and have partially) describe how mine works, but so far that has only led us into "ours doesn't work like that" mud-slinging - I know yours doesn't work like that, but the broad picture and the intent are the same. But first we have to get past the idea that the loco driver runs the railway.

Regards, Greg.P.

It would be easy with clockwork!

Yeah, I picked up the Peco switches in a junk box: two broken locos, a wagon, some damaged track, some scenic items and some Peco switches for $10-. I sold one loco made from the two for $25- the next week. That works out that I got paid $5- each to use each of the three Peco switches. As for complication, if you can't figure out how to run a current feed through an on/off switch to the track then perhaps you should find a new hobby!

I didn't hear about that. (not a control system failure? Terrorism???)

An LM317 plus a few other basic components does an excellent job.

Wasn't terrorism; road crew forgot to throw a switch back to the main, and a freight train went up a siding and collided with parked cars. Unfortunately, the train was carrying chlorine, letting loose a toxic cloud that killed 9 people in the town.

Tim

It didn't get much press. There was a story about an Italian crash the same day that was in most newspapers and broadcast news though.

In the era and country I model, the only locomotive allowed in a single track section carried a token giving permission, or a ticket signed by the driver to say he had seen it and which gave permission, or what was known as a tablet. Tablets were released from a stack when the route including signals had been set up.

If there was a siding in section, there would be a key attached to the token or tablet, that allowed the crew to operate a ground frame. This was a small interlocking lever frame with maybe two levers - for the facing point lock and the turnout. The key could not be removed until the proper route had been reset.

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to the US, apart from the staggered rail joints, was the absence of this kind of protection. The switch stand for the siding was just padlocked, and there were no facing point locks.