The New PistonBroke Line

[OBJack]

Jack, 

   The old PistonBroke Thread was a hoot!  Only on page 6, but your postings bring a smile to my face.  To see you start literally from ground zero with almost no experience at all to having fun with our hobby is great.  Glad to see you're trying this adventure once again.

Thanks Todd, seems like a million years ago now, but lots of fun times and steep learning curves.

So onto the next iteration of the PistonBroke line. For those interested I will try to explain this journey I'm now on, I'll also accept all help, advice, and brickbats I receive with grace. 
Any questions you may have I'll try to answer.

I realise its not everyones cup of tea, but for me who has no idea of how a real RR operates I am intrigued by the idea I can watch many trains operating at once, stopping at destinations I tell them to, obeying schedules and timetables as programmed all the while obeying rules of the road. And all the while I can sit back and enjoy with a frothy in hand.... 

First thing to know,  the programme I use is Very Expensive. So you need to make sure this is the route you want take, I'm not sure of the price of other software options.. and there are others. 
I use Railroad & Co which has a programme called Traincontroller.
And Digikeijs is my controller of choice.

   

It has the simplicity of being able to connect straight into the computer, and the ability to connect loconet and Lenz type systems was a winner for me.

Traincontroller has three different levels of programming and of course ... $$, Bronze Silver & Gold.
 I purchased the gold edition. In for a penny, in for a pound.
And I know nothing of where I'm heading, except it sounds kinda cool, to me.
 A Laptop is all that is needed, old is ok as not much RAM is used, but I did purchase a larger screen just to be kind to my eyes.

   

Now we are Ready to Rock & Roll  

Jack