Newbie - District 22 - Downtown L.A. (A table top railway)

[torikoos]

Jonte - who did you order the controller from in the end?
Best
Jack

Hi Jack

I took your advice (as always) and wrote to Roger Murray, who kindly and promptly wrote back to inform me that Stephen Hughes of <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.blackcattech.co.uk/">http://www.blackcattech.co.uk/</a><!-- m --> has taken over production. As I write, an LC101 with an output of 1.5 Amps - aimed at OO/HO gauges - together with 5-pin DIN plug (pre-wired) is whanging its way to me for a very reasonable total price of a tad over thirty quid. After reading that Stephen recently achieved a scale speed of 0.5 mph out of an old J94 Dapol model, well, I just had to have it, so a sincere thanks, Jack, for the heads up.

Best wishes,

Jonte.

I used to have a similar controller, I build 'back in the day' from a schematic published in a dutch model railway magazine 'Railhobby'. I think it was a 1986 issue (yep, that long ago). It also uses the pulse principle, but unlike other controllers in it's day, the pulse strength (amplitude) did not vary, it was the pulse density, going from narrow pulses, to wider (and more frequent) until ultimately joining to getter as a DC signal.
I also managed to get some ridiculous low speeds with some Roco engines at the time.( after they were run in and warmed up :-) ) We used to place a ruler along the track, and then started to move a loco, as soon as we saw the wheels were turning, we'd taken note of the time, and then sat back and see how long it would take to move 1 meter.
In the end we went for a cup of tea and came back to the train room, finding the loco had only progressed about two thirds of that distance in 15 minutes or so. I remember calculating it back to a silly slow speed. 0.2KM per hour or so, which is approx 0.13mph If my calculations/conversions are correct.
Not bad for a home bake controller. I still have it somewhere in an obscure shoe box :-)

Koos