On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 12:14:01 +1200, Gregory Procter wrote:
computer able to
LOL! Hardly, You forgot to read the part that says it comes from the factory with that capability already built in. The CPU/Control center and the decoder work together to accomplish this. Ah, but I must, in the interest of full disclosure, say that it cannot be done in that simplest of worlds where only two wires are connected to the railroad. Although it does not begin to approach the complexity at the construction level of doing the same thing with DC, it does require a bit of wiring and circuitry. The ironic part about it is that the DCC system uses DC to make it happen. It works something like your computer block routing, except much simpler. There is no computer required other than the DCC control center and a decoder inside the loco. It is an electro-mechanical function such that the track is interlocked to the signal. When the signal is set to stop, the decoder automatically gets a message to stop before passing it. Now, that is not to say that you cannot use a computer to control the signals, you can, but they can also be automatic and be controlled by the movement of trains over the system. However, I think this may be a North American method of signal systems not used in NZ/OZ When working with North American signaling philosophy, this works very well. As I said, neither I nor any of the people in my operating group use this feature, as we consider it an unneeded bell or whistle. There are many, however, who do use it. It is a great feature for an automated model railway as it simplifies things greatly. With the combination of transponding, wherein the decoder and the control station can exchange positional information (kind of a DCC version of GPS) and speed stabilization; which maintains a uniform train speed up and down hill and around curves, and the "block control" feature, automation is a "piece of cake" as we Yanks say. I don't know why we say that, but we do. It is an idiom meaning "very easy". As easy as eating a piece of cake, perhaps? I don't know.
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