From the Dome Car: Train 5 Track 3 (June-July, 1995)













Today, DCC is the standard way people operate trains. In this Dome Car, we are taken back to when DCC was just entering the model railroad marketplace. (The NMRA had just standardized DCC two years earlier in 1993.) You can hear the fascination in Morgan's words as he uses it for the first time. As he put it: “It was like I was in total control of running the operations of the locomotives, just as one would be on the prototype.” All he needed was horn and bell sounds, and it would be perfect, he said—something that is, of course, standard these days.

How do you think the advancements in digital command control (DCC) will affect future model railroaders and their layouts? I had a sneak preview of what to expect last week, when on my weekly visit to the local hobby shops in town, I had the opportunity to 'play with' the system introduced by Wangrow Electronics called the System One.

The Wangrow company is one of four better-know companies producing DCC systems, the others being Lenz Digital, Digitrax, LogicWare Systems and Steam Line. There I was, at the throttle of engine number 6218 on Kirlin Scale Model's test track in the store. I chose the engine number I wanted to operate, turned-on the headlight, throttled-up to position four on the thumb throttle and the engine built up speed to simulate about 20 miles per-hour.

Meanwhile, the readout on the hand-held, walk-around controller reported my engine number, direction, throttle speed, headlight status and time on the fast clock, just to name a few. If a horn or bell had been wired into the unit, they too could have been activated from the handheld.

The functions are all controlled by inserting a decoder, able to control five different functions, into a socket (which has been approved by the NMRA) that's been simply wired into the electronics of the locomotive. The Atlas Model Railroad Company is so interested in this type of product that they are producing locomotives with the DCC plug already installed so that you can run one of their locomotives on a standard, power packcontrolled layout, then take it to a running session where DCC is used, plug in a decoder, enter the necessary information into the command station, and run things using the DCC system—without doing any extra-fancy wiring!

I stopped 6218, switched to locomotive No. 533, and proceeded to run that engine on a different track. The possibilities of operations and combinations of functions are too numerous to mention in this short column, but I was impressed enough with what I saw that I felt mention of it here was necessary. It was like I was in total control of running the operations of the locomotives, just as one would be on the prototype. Quite amazing as to what electronics is leading up to!

On other matters, if you're considering sending us a construction article—be it a locomotive, a piece of rolling stock or a structure—and you're at the picture taking stage, be sure to include a couple of colour, vertical-format shots of the model when you're taking the photos that could be suitable for a cover photo. And don't forget to include the negatives with the photos! A great-looking cover shot isn't much help to us unless we have the negative to make the cover photograph with.

As we've said before, don't be hesitant in seeking help with your model photography from some of your modelling friends. If you require some additional help in preparing your material, give us a call or drop us a line and we'll see what can be done to assist. A magazine such as ours can never have enough articles to choose from, especially of the modelling kind.

And one more thing: we've run out of hobby shops to feature in our Hobby Shop Tunnel department. So if your favourite hobby shop hasn't been featured before in CRM, just write us about 150 to 200 words outlining what you like about the place, take a couple of photos of the inside and outside of the shop and send it to us for consideration.

And so, as the days become hotter and thoughts of vacation time becomes a reality, please enjoy the summer and play it safe if you end up at trackside. Keep those cards and letters coming as it's always great hearing from you, our readers. For me, I'll be doing my share of railfanning too ... on a railway line that may become extinct soon!



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