Technology on the layout: Part one, a rambling overview.

 It’s no secret I am opposed to installing layers of technology on my layouts. While there are as many examples, if not more,  of the successful use of technology on our layouts, I choose to dwell on the failures. 

What I’m trying to say is I’m not all that scared of technology, but I’m probably less likely to include some “Trick-bag*” gimmicks on my layout than the average modeler.

I have a command control system which worked nearly flawlessly for every session on AIR1. It had some teething problems early on, but these were overcome. 

I have operated on NUMEROUS layouts where their Tortoise switch machines operate without a hint of trouble for decades. I have looked at the wiring on many of those layouts and to describe them as “rats nests” is complementary. Yet they soldier on with no issues.

The big complaint is when your wiring is a mess tracing problems is that much more difficult.

My opposition to adding technology feeds on itself. I say I’m opposed to something, and I remember I’ve said that, so I must not add some helpful bit of technology, in case I’m accused of hypocrisy. 

My turnouts are, as a rule, hand thrown. I personally consider that easier. I do not need to find the switch to activate the tortoise. I am planning to install a number of tortoise machines. These will primarily be for staging yards, or in the unlikely event there is a turnout that is difficult to reach.

I saw a signaling system yesterday that is in its early stages of installation. The signals are beautiful, and EXPENSIVE. Once complete it will result in a system that, in keeping with Eastern prototype practices, has much more to do with speed regulation, than route selection. 

Since I’ve grown to like TTTO,  I’ve grown to see signals as more and more superfluous. I am going to install both train order semaphore signals, and ABS semaphore signals on the short bits of Western Maryland trackage, for example, the interchange track from Chatsworth Yard. There will be a semaphore at WM tower.

Likewise I’m not a fan of sound equipped locomotives. This has grown from multiple op sessions on various layouts where the sound of locomotives is a din. I think layout owners start one train running, when they are alone, working on the layout, and they want to hear it all through the room. They then set the sound of all their locomotives to that level. Whatever the reason, sound equipped locomotives are an annoyance to me.

When it comes to lighting, I want bright light that will allow me to read text anywhere in the room. Bright light. I suppose light that is not harsh to my eyes, but bright. I recently attended an op session that was set during the night, and the layout room was pitch black. If I hadn’t been driving four other guys I’d have left immediately. I went upstairs and visited the family. I was invited to another session that was advertised as being set in the dark, “how cool!”. I declined this invitation. I am not interested in simulating night time operations. So my lighting is going to be planned to illuminate the layout to a point that you will be able to read all your paperwork. I’m wondering if I’ll need to add additional light under the upper decks to illuminate lower decks?

JMRI terrifies me, period. I am not computer literate (I say that while typing this on my IPad). I do not see any advantage to adding those features to my layout controlled by JMRI. Signaling, Decoder pro, switch lists; none of these things appeal to me. I am very interested in RFID scanners to help with OS-ing trains, but they would not need JMRI. I am not computer literate, and cannot repair computer problems on my layout by myself. I do not want any technologically issue on the layout I cannot repair, MYSELF, quickly (I got bit by one of these situations once, a friend built and installed a very nice control panel that controlled some turnouts, over which all my traffic eventually had to traverse. When this panel shorted out, the entire layout was shut down). 

I have been present at op sessions where glitches have shut the layout down for hours, or just caused the layout owner some embarrassment. My modeling embarrasses me enough, I don’t need my wiring doing more damage.

*Where I worked for over thirty years,  a particularly derogatory comment was to refer to something you built as being “Trick-Bag Shit”. You’d often have to solve some problem or another with “something out of your bag of tricks”.

 I once heard an art director reply, when asked how she expected the carpenters to solve a problem she created, but offered no solution for, “Don’t worry the Propmakers will always come up with something creative from their bag of tricks”. 

But if you build something that is dimly viewed by others, they will often say you were trying something “Trick-Bag”.