Curmudgeon said:
You familiar with what a pack of Camels or Lucky Strikes looks like?
That’s my control station.
And no 24, 12 and 5V power supplies in and about a metal box that looks like it came off a Russian Foxtrot.
Good Night.
You recall a few years back I was wandering down the dark path toward DCC. I had been reading Digitrak’s book and had convinced myself that DCC would be da bomb. It took several years of saving before I was able to afford the system that I wanted, and even then I could only equip 3 or 4 locos with decoders right out of the gate. Just before I placed the order I posted a ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ on my intentions.
Dave, you immediately came forward to help me on to the path of salvation (or was that salivation?) I decided not to buy the DCC set up. I still haven’t converted and locos to stand alone Battery-R/C, but I have successfully used a quick and dirty trail car system with my Aristo locos. I even converted my sound car to pass the battery power and be switchable from track to battery power.
It’s now 2 years later, and for the life of me I can’t remember what I thought was so cool about DCC outdoors. I don’t plan on any automated operations, seldom double head, and the myth that it would eliminate wiring issues when doing wyes and reverse loops was exposed as soon as I dug into it. Automate yes, simplify no.
So HJ, I wish you good luck. I hope it works out for you. For me, it just didn’t seem worth the investment and trouble.
I still run full track power with manual block control for most of my loco fleet. Reversing on the wye and loop was handled with a simple DPDT that takes power from the feed track. My RR is still small and only requires a few feed points, which is where I place my block control swithces in outdoor boxes.
Full battery R/C is in my future.
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