I'm a devoted DC guy but I recently had an interesting conversation and now I am curious. What happens if you are running a locomotive on DCC and suddenly remove it (0-5-0 switcher) from the rails, wait 60 seconds, and then replace it on the track. Does it continue running at the same speed? just shut off? explode?
I'm assuming that the loco is placed directly on the track without shorting.
Does the answer vary based on what brand of DCC system is being used?
Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:
Most, if not all, throttle commands and function statuses are re-sent to the rails at regular intervals. That's in the NMRA specs, so it won't vary much from brand to brand. Therefore, the loco will pretty much pick up where it left off.
There are some exceptions, of course. For example, most DCC sound-equipped locos will go through their start-up sequence, because that's what they do when they are first powered up and DCC packets are addressed to them (which is really all that's happening here).
Digitrax just looks for it again when it is placed on the track again. YOu can HURT your decoder doing that but the system will survive.
Sorry, Gomez, it won't explode.
The command information is constantly being re-sent from the DCC master station. It doesn't even require the presence of the locomotive in question. So, you could take your engine off the track, select it and command it to move, ring its bell and so on, and then put the engine on the track. It would start up and start ringing as soon as the first packet showed up, within some reasonable number of milliseconds.
DCC allows you to program engines with momentum, so, depending on the decoder, the engine will likely not "pop the clutch" and take off in a jackrabbit start, but rather gradually gain speed until it reaches the commanded velocity. Pretty neat, huh?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
OK I knew it would happen. Operating session. Eugine staled, was picked up and looked at. No problem. Selected another address without CLEARING the buffer. Put 1st switcher back on the track and it took off, slow then built up to the throttle setting. only problem was it was STILL IN THE YARD. Glad I have STRONG bumpers.
So in answer to you question yes it does not go BOOM just CRASH!!