05-15-2014, 02:19 PM
The more I work with DCC, the more I'm rethinking a lot of my operational approach. The conventional wisdom has been that DCC is best for allowing operation of multiple locos without the need to isolate block power. However, I almost never operate other than by myself, but I find so many advantages to DCC besides operating multiple locos that it's raising a lot of questions.
One is that, although a 4-function decoder will allow you to run a loco with headlights on or off, there are other options, both in the age of oscillating warning lights and in the age of ditch lights. A 4-function decoder won't allow separate control of ditch lights, or allow them to flash (or not as the operating rules provide) at grade crossings. This is a problem both with decoders and with light bars. For instance, Kato light bars allow only one option for headlight and ditch lights, all on or all off. There's no point in installing a 6-function decoder in the Kato locos I'm familiar with (I don't know if the new AMD-103 is different), since the light bars don't feed off separate LEDs.
The first high-end Walthers Proto loco I've looked at is the GE U28B, and I'm delighted with the options you can get using the 9-pin plug and an NCE D15SR 6-function decoder. Ordinary upper headlight and number boards lit:
Lower headlight only:
Lighted number boards only:
All lights lit:
What I noted back in the days of oscillating warning lights, both from memory and from DVDs, was that use of these lights wasn't consistent. The engineer could run with just the headlight, with both lights lit but oscillating light not oscillating, or headlight and oscillating light. By the same token, ditch lights are used in normal operation on the main line, although if the train is stopped, only the headlight is lit. Headlight is lit toward the rear on DPUs. In yard, a moving loco may or may not have headlights lit, no ditch lights.
I need to keep studying all this, as well as understanding more clearly what the commercial models and decoders are capable of. I want to avoid Kato style situations -- or for that matter, Atlas Trainman Genset situations where there are ditch lights, but they're all wired together, and there's no good way to rewire without a lot of work.
I'd like to hear anyone else's experience along this line.
One is that, although a 4-function decoder will allow you to run a loco with headlights on or off, there are other options, both in the age of oscillating warning lights and in the age of ditch lights. A 4-function decoder won't allow separate control of ditch lights, or allow them to flash (or not as the operating rules provide) at grade crossings. This is a problem both with decoders and with light bars. For instance, Kato light bars allow only one option for headlight and ditch lights, all on or all off. There's no point in installing a 6-function decoder in the Kato locos I'm familiar with (I don't know if the new AMD-103 is different), since the light bars don't feed off separate LEDs.
The first high-end Walthers Proto loco I've looked at is the GE U28B, and I'm delighted with the options you can get using the 9-pin plug and an NCE D15SR 6-function decoder. Ordinary upper headlight and number boards lit:
Lower headlight only:
Lighted number boards only:
All lights lit:
What I noted back in the days of oscillating warning lights, both from memory and from DVDs, was that use of these lights wasn't consistent. The engineer could run with just the headlight, with both lights lit but oscillating light not oscillating, or headlight and oscillating light. By the same token, ditch lights are used in normal operation on the main line, although if the train is stopped, only the headlight is lit. Headlight is lit toward the rear on DPUs. In yard, a moving loco may or may not have headlights lit, no ditch lights.
I need to keep studying all this, as well as understanding more clearly what the commercial models and decoders are capable of. I want to avoid Kato style situations -- or for that matter, Atlas Trainman Genset situations where there are ditch lights, but they're all wired together, and there's no good way to rewire without a lot of work.
I'd like to hear anyone else's experience along this line.