DCC is the future

"Mark W" wrote

A lot don't too - including the new Voyagers.

John.

Reply to
John Turner
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"Martin Wykes" wrote

I'd be very surprised if you didn't, but the plain simple fact is that 99% of British modellers disagree with you, and don't want British HO-scale at any price.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

A trackside optical detector will detect rolling stock at a point on your layout, or rolling stock passing a point on your layout. It will not (reliably) detect a train in block, which is the prototypical method.

DCC is fine for driving trains the way one does motor cars, but it requires an additional layer of technology on top of the additional layer of technology to operate a railway of British or European type.

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

I quite agree - I just don't think it will be a positive step for the hobby. Would you want your locomotives fitted with decoders from last year, 5 years ago, 45 years ago? There's constant improvement in decoders, and those from a couple of years ago no longer cut the mustard. The average age of my fairly large collection is 10-15 years and I would have to upgrade decoders perhaps every 5 years - analogue is here to stay!

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

In message , Mark W writes

Dunno. You could try

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I suppose.

Reply to
John Sullivan

John,

I bet you if someone like Bachmann decided to start bringing out H0 scale British outline, that proportion would drop overnight.

And who are the 99% of the British modellers. I bet more than 1% of British modellers model in other scales and couldn't give a hoot about the 4mm scale narrow gauge brigade, so your 99% is probably wildly inaccurate :-)

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

"Jim Guthrie" wrote

I doubt it, but on the other hand Bachmann are not that stupid either! They'll have seen the futile efforts in the past by the likes of Lima, Fleischmann and Riavrossi to realise that flogging a dead horse is an expensive business.

Well, giving you the benefit of the doubt, let's rephrase my statement slightly and say

The less than 1% of modellers who currently work in British outline HO-scale are unlikely to convince the OO-scale adherents to chuck away all of the recent quality models which the like of Bachmann, Hornby and Heljan have been producing and selling in large quantity to make a fresh start in HO.

Is that more to your pedantic liking? ;-)

John.

Reply to
John Turner

The Lima products were toys. Fleischmann offer one loco and 3 coaches. Rivarossi were 1:80th scale - closer to OO than HO.

If small percentages of British modellers can support N scale, O scale, TT 3 scale ... then there is room for HO scale as well. There's already track available as well as scenic accessories and there are vast numbers of European and US modellers who might buy a train for their collection.

Regards, Greg.P. Takaka.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

Does anyone do a HO Class 66/Series 66/JT42CWR? They have the real thing in the UK, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, etc, and they are getting more popular as open access spreads. There are assorted colour schemes, and they could happily pull continental HO scale wagons.

Flicking through a Dutch railway magazine recently I saw a "Class 66" a Class 08-a-like and an ex-pat Class 58.

(Does Series 66 get to Luxembourg and Switzerland, has one made it to Poland?)

Reply to
Arthur Figgis

A layer of computer control is needed. You couple two optical sensors together so the speed of each bit of stock is calculated and it projects where the stock will be. Go one flashier and add barcodes to the underside of the stock and optical readers in a few places on the track for even better tracking.

Reply to
Mark W

years ago, 45 years ago?

ago no longer cut the

I would have to

Perhaps sockets will become more commonplace.

Reply to
Mark W

John,

Fleischmann and Rivarossi were never big players in the UK market as far as UK outline prototypes were concerned so they were starting off from a fairly weak position. Lima have never really been held in high regard. But Hornby and Bachmann now have good reputations in the UK RTR market and if either or both of them decided to switch scales, then you might find that the base of stoical 4mm followers got depleted quite quickly.

I think the model railway scene has changed quite a bit over the past few years and you find players like Hornby bringing out live steam models which, on the face of it, might be deemed a peculiar marketing decision. But if the live steam model is a commercial success and that is due to a significant uptake in the US market, who knows what Hornby's next decision might be, especially if they see the financial success being sales in a non-UK market place.

Not being pedantic - just reminding you that's there's more to railway modelling than 4mm scale :-)

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

The prototype just sticks a relay between the rails, powered through a resistor

- any rolling stock anywhere in the isolated block and the relay drops out!

Your way still relies on the occupying rolling stock moving past the sensor, or parking on top of it. That's not good enough, however much it costs! ;-)

Regards, Greg.P. Takaka, NZ.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

I suppose I can cope with having to pay for sockets I don't need if it keeps the rest of you happy. :-(

Regards, Greg.P. Takaka, NZ.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

However, using a block method on the model doesn't allow detection of rolling stock.

Reply to
Mark W

Cost is minimal though.

Reply to
Mark W

"Jim Guthrie" wrote

I don't need reminding of that. I currently model in OOn9, OO, HO (USA outline) and O-scale (7mm to 1 foot - another bastard scale, but one which pedants seem willing to leave well alone).

John.

Reply to
John Turner

Heljan spoke of doing an HO 66 alongside a planned OO model, but that seems to have gone quiet recently. Does anyone know of Heljan's plans post-Hymek?

The Class 08-a-like probably was an ex-BR 08 - a number of them were exported, as was an earlier Class 11-a-like built during WW2. When you think about it, a lot of British locomotives have ended up in foreign countries.

--

***
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*** Updated 03 November, now 620 images online. Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin.co.uk)
Reply to
Rich Mackin

"Rich Mackin" wrote

There are some pictures of these (08 look-alikes) on the *Other overseas railways* page of my

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website. I think you'll find, however, that they were not ex-BR loco's but new build loco's which were simply export orders for English-Electric.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

=>Cost is minimal though.

In fact, the cost of producing and tracking two versions of a locomotive are greater than the cost of the socket. And as decoders drop in price, it will be cheaper to offer a DC/DCC locomotive than two versions of the locomotive. (Broadway Ltd and Atlas already offer DC/DCC locos that automatically switch to the correct power.)

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

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