Command Control

 On my previous layout I used CVP’s “Easy DCC” system. It was, in fact VERY easy to install. It’s been over twenty years since I installed it, but pretty sure it took me less than one hour to unbox it and get it installed. 

Initially this system had a number of problems. CVP assured me that if I only spent an additional $250 dollars for the upgrade everything would be fine.

I was pretty upset that CVP expected me to pay them an additional $250 just to make my DCC system work like it was supposed to.

I met with CVP at the 2005 NMRA convention, and wrote them a check for $250. 

While I felt black mailed, I think I had paid $3000 for my entire command control system up to that point, once the $250 upgrade was installed my system performed flawlessly. It REALLY did. The only problems I had with it were “Operator Error”, and this was narrowed down to two operators who continuously made errors.

So now, after roughly 25 years with Easy DCC and using countless other command control systems at layouts all over the country I have decided to purchase a new Command Control system. In my opinion this system is the best for large layouts. Nearly everyone I speak to agrees with this opinion.

I’m purchasing a command station, wireless base station, boosters and breakers for ten power districts, three master throttles which will be positioned at the three engine service facilities on the layout, and fourteen wireless throttles for all the operators.

Everything except wiring $4700, the throttles are the biggest ticket item.

I will let you know how it works out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wingedfoot Paper Part 2: Pulpwood

 On AIR1 a large, centrally located industry, was Wingedfoot Paper. As Jon Cure is fond of saying, a paper mill is the perfect Model Railroad industry. The major raw material is wood pulp. In 1952  pulpwood, cut and stacked like cord wood, was shipped to mills in a variety of cars. Nearly any car you can name was used, or modified in such a way as to become, a pulpwood hauler. Generally pulpwood was not valuable enough to travel far. The collection of pulpwood racks I have,  needs a great deal of repainting and re-lettering.  I just don’t think it’s likely to see Atlantic Coast Line cars hauling pulpwood into central WV! I have been toying with the idea of repainting cars from distant foreign roads and just adding a simplified lettering, using the premise that they are not for interchange. We’ll see. [4/19/22 this afternoon I went through the box of pulpwood cars. I think with only a few exceptions I’m going to have to repaint these flats and letter them for the AIR....
Read more

Freight House Operations: LCL and Freight Houses

 LCL is a huge source of revenue, car loading, and tonnage for railroads of the steam era. By the end of WWII numbers dropped fast, mainly due to trucks and roads. But to be honest LCL continued to be a big part of railroading. Today all that UPS traffic is LCL. There has been a lot of discussion of late about how to implement LCL  on a model railroad. My feeling is I do not want to perform a function by simply standing and counting off the seconds, pretending to off load LCL packages. What I did on AIR1 was to print up Waybills that simulated packages of LCL.  The peddler car was placed in the consist of a local, the car card for the peddler car had multiple bills in it, and as the local got to each depot, the train crew would check their LCL bills to check for a set out. You did not set out the car, you set out the BILL.  I extended this procedure for REA packages, US Mail, passengers, and now I plan to add this function for loaded milk cans, but more on all that l...
Read more

Freight House Operations: LCL from Foreign Road Freight Houses

 On AIR 1 while WM , N&W, CRR, and VGN trains had trackage rights over some or all of the layout, there were no freight houses for these foreign roads. Often in towns served by two or more competing lines one will find a freight house for each of these roads. In Winchester, VA the freight houses for the PRR and the B&O still stand today. On AIR 2 I do not plan model the extensive trackage rights as on the first layout. I plan to have these foreign roads to come on to the layout via either a short run of their track, visibly modeled, terminating at an interchange point, or simply a transfer from an off layout staging yard. In short fairly limited presence. However at each of these interchange points there should be some foreign road structures in their colors to give strong visual clues that these tracks do indeed belong to someone else. In a few cases, WM and N&W  for sure, some of these foreign road structures will be a freight house. Again, relying on the Kalmbac...
Read more