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Walk around throttles are the way to go. Model Railroader had an article on building your own walk around throttle in a mid 1980’s issue. A friend has built several of these for me and they work flawlessly. The memory feature allows one to unplug and move to a new location while the train continues to move. The train will eventually stop but this will take several to 10 minutes. In the time it takes you to move from one plug-in location to the next, the train speed appears to be constant. The throttle consists of two parts, the transformer, reverse relay and other electronic components are in a fixed location under the layout. The hand held portion contains 5 buttons; increase speed, decrease speed, forward, reverse and emergency stop. It is lightweight and cool. All the heat generating electronics and in the transformer unit. The hand held unit is low voltage and can be wired using 4 conductor telephone wire. It turns out that you require two wiring systems, one for the walk around and another for the variable voltage wire to the track. Its not radio control or DCC but a big step up from the stationary throttle. I have used a train throttle as the transformer for a while but eventually went to the suggested transformer (18 volts and 2 amps). Running two Athearn diesels was just too much. I am using several in block wiring and very happy with the results. A great little throttle.
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