The Scale Model Railroader

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I started doing research on this new thing I seem to be hearing about in Scale Model Railroading. It is called DCC which stands for Digital Command Control and it’s a new way of managing multiple engines on one track.  When I started this hobby years ago, we used to “block” the track sections, use multiple transformers and had to do some complicated switching/balancing as trains moved from one block section to another.  You used to manage the trains, and set up the blocking by cutting the electrical connection of the rails between the blocks.  For long sections of track, we had to physically cut the rails, otherwise you used specialty couplers that did not conduct electricity between track sections. As engines moved between blocks, you had to manage that movement carefully.

DCC looks like it solves many of these problems by sending signals to the actual locomotives vs. isolating things simply by electricity.  The control signals require a receiver installed on the engine (a DCC
compatible engine).  The bad news is that, as far as I can tell,  older locos (like I have) won’t accept a DCC receiver, so I have to likely run some sort of hybrind track system, not use DCC, or go all DCC and buy all new locomotives. I’m still investigating what I can do here, since my current “budget” is pretty limited right now but some of the promise of DCC is still intriguing.

Bottom line, DCC it appears, changes the whole game. Even the type of electricity running through the rails (from DC, direct current, to AC alternating current) is different as well as the equipment you need, the locomotives you can run, and alot of the problems that you could ignore with the standard Direct Control/Direct Current transformers. My mind tends towards simple solutions and manual control vs. automated but I’m not trying to go totally luddite here.

The best website I’ve seen thus far on this subject was referred to me by @ChrisinDallas on Twitter.  It is a site written and maintained by Allan Gartner. I’ve included it in my links and again here http://wiringfordcc.com/

More on this topic as I move forward but check out Allan’s site if you want to know the nitty gritty details, and leave me your comments if you would about your experience with DCC.

Technorati: DCC, Digital Command Control, Locomotive, model, Rail transport modelling, Railroad, Recreation, scale model railroad, scale model railroading