Full Version: The New Future of MRR Operating Systems
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Not very long ago, some Garden scale folks started using batteries and radio control to run their trains.

Yesterday, I read the latest ad for a radio control, lithium battery powered, operating system for HO, on the market right now, complete with installable microcircuit board.

Won't be long before there is one for N-scale and DCC will become as obsolete as all the rest of the previous systems.

I can't wait.
I would think of it as a variation on DCC. With battery power you would be able to run multiple locomotives but you would still need to address each one individually.

Just my 2ยข.

Tom
You don't need DCC to mu multiple locos. I run two locos on my Southern freight trains (N scale) on DC. You just need to find two that have the same starting voltage (not hard if you have two locos of the same brand). Never mind that in most cases the second and even third don't really need to be powered anyway which is why so many use dummies. I don't really need two powered units either for that matter. Of course using dummies also saves you $$$$$$$$$$$. I do like the idea of battery control as that gets rid of the wiring altogether, a much better, easier and cheaper solution than DCC.
I also run mu on DC (see photo). My thought is that if you want to have one engine running laps while another is performing switching chores there has to be a way to control each engine separately, whether it be through separate controllers or using an addressing method similar to dcc.

Tom

[Image: IMG_2687.jpg]
There's a demonstration of so-called "dead rail" operation HERE

I doubt that it will make current operating systems obsolete, but it's an interesting alternative.

Running multiple locomotives together on a DC-controlled layout is easy, and they don't necessarily need to be evenly matched for speed, although it helps if their starting voltages are similar. The main requirement is that they are actually needed to pull the trailing tonnage. If you want to run multiple DC locomotives on trains which don't really require the extra power, it's best to use ones which are speed-matched, too, or you could run dummies instead.

Even though my layout is DC-controlled, wiring is quite simple because it's not meant for more than one operator - no need for blocks, although I do have the ability to shut-off passing sidings and individual tracks in staging yards and industrial sidings. No bus wire, either. Wink

Wayne
Actually, without the need for expensive computer systems, train cleaning, wheel cleaning and no wiring needed at all, this is a highly attractive alternative to DCC.
R/C isn't a new idea for model trains I first read about early attempts in the 60s and yes, its basically R/C since there is no track wiring other then for switches(aka turnouts). Now comes the inevitable question.. What about signals since they work off track current?

IF R/C becomes more then a novelty -recall that's what they called N Scale in the 60s and DCC not so long ago- then we will have no need to worry about cleaning track, using track blocks for DC or DCC.
"Won't be long before there is one for N-scale and DCC will become as obsolete as all the rest of the previous systems."

I'm on Pete Stienmetz' dead rail yahoo group. A couple of days ago someone posted a link to a demonstration of dead rail in Z scale!!!

I have a bunch of F-units, and Alco Pa's with dummy B-units. I'm planning to use the B-units as battery cars in ho scale on the modular club. I'll still use dcc to control them I think, unless I can link the entire consist as one unit.
[size=150][size=200]WARNING[/size][/size]This thread is reporting a malicious website on my system - the other pages arenot - I will report it
The one thing I find amusing, is that what if you made it so the the charge was to "scale", and you had to remember to park the engine on the fueling rack (charging track)?

If I run my electrics, isn't is still more prototypical to run off the wire?

Could I run my electrics off the wire while the battery powered diesels were on that track?
I operate by myself, so I have no need for all the elaborate sound effects. A simple DC system meets my needs just fine, and enables me to operate trains in the fashion that they actually worked circa 1900.

Easier to fix, too...and it never becomes obsolete. Every single system I have seen advertised since the beginnings of DCC has been superseded several times over.
MountainMan Wrote:I operate by myself, so I have no need for all the elaborate sound effects. A simple DC system meets my needs just fine.....

Same here. The wiring is very simple, and I've no need of elaborate lighting effects, nor am I impressed by steam locomotive sounds in HO. Other than an occasional vacuuming of the track, I've not had to clean it after the initial cleaning, which followed the ballasting process. For the original portion of the layout, that was over 20 years ago. Goldth
I've operated on the layouts of friends using DCC, and thoroughly enjoyed myself, but I've no need of its features on my own layout.

Wayne
doctorwayne Wrote:
MountainMan Wrote:I operate by myself, so I have no need for all the elaborate sound effects. A simple DC system meets my needs just fine.....

Same here. The wiring is very simple, and I've no need of elaborate lighting effects, nor am I impressed by steam locomotive sounds in HO. Other than an occasional vacuuming of the track, I've not had to clean it after the initial cleaning, which followed the ballasting process. For the original portion of the layout, that was over 20 years ago. Goldth
I've operated on the layouts of friends using DCC, and thoroughly enjoyed myself, but I've no need of its features on my own layout.

Wayne

While I enjoy DCC/Sound I am not above pushing the DC mode on my Tech 6 and break out my older BB SW7,GP7 or GP35 to switch my older BB, Roundhouse Bev-Bel etc freight cars even though I have better detailed cars and locomotives. In fact yesterday I switched back to my older cars and my BB Family Lines GP7.

BTW. As far as sound after 30 minutes or so I will hit F8 and enjoy the sound of silence.
"BTW. As far as sound after 30 minutes or so I will hit F8 and enjoy the sound of silence."

Yeah, sound gets on my nerves really quick.
I must say that my chnage to DCC was a great step in my modeling.
I don't own an own layout and 8ft test track is the only where my models can "run", back and for. So I love to run the models on the modular layouts with friends one or two times each year and there I stand outside again with my DC engines and trains of 1900 or 1930 because all friends are modern time modellers with diesels and DCC since years now! And the 1900 cars behind a diesel - no, this was not that what I would like to see.
I was lucky to hear a first time the sound of TCS WOW-sound decoders and the very prototypical BEMF sound where a steam loco runs almost without a sound while the loco or train rolls without power on a level track. This chnange of sound volumes were that what me has given back the expirience of a real steam loco. And so my trains came back into the reality, into the real live.
I think that this technology will not be changed in a short time. I think that we are in a phase of consolidation in present time and I'm sure that I can run my trains until I can not play with my trains. Ok, I would not like to make a further change in model railroading technology, however I'm sure that also this DCC system will be changed and developed, but never a general change to another new system? No, not in next ten years! And please not in my live!
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