General Discussion (Model Railroader)

O K  We now have choo-choo sounds, we have smoke, steam from generator cars, hand held controls, DC-3 thingies, So what is the next BIG ''thing" ? ? steam coming from the coupler hoses?  animated humans lurking around the layout? abolish bamboo skewers?  There must be all kinds of new stuff the makers are working on, anyone heard of new "stuff" coming in the future?  I wonder what will be the really big thing to own in the new soon,  any rumors or news out there, enquiring minds must know.

  A working air brake system for every scale!! Get the tweezers and microscope for anything under ho lol.

  I really dont know what else there is honestly. DCC and sound is my favorite advances.I like the idea of scale size peoples running around. I am sure the cats would as well.

While MTH already has DCC-activated couplers on their new SD70 models, I think that more companies will begin to offer that on their locomotives. Just locomotives at first though - maybe some enterprising person will offer "Coupler Only" decoders for railcars, but they'd need to be really, really cheap and easy to install.

Animated N scale lumberjacks racing up Lodgepole Pines and lopping the tops off---of course the trees are bamboo skewers

  You have got to be kiddin me. DCC operated couplers? I have heard it all now.

route_rock:

  You have got to be kiddin me. DCC operated couplers? I have heard it all now.

 It's nothing new, and MTH certainly isn't the first. Previous versions I've seen worked either with a pager motor or 'muscle wire'. I saw Dick Bronson's (owner of RR-CirKits) version in action at the Timonium train show about 4 or so years ago.

 Still, it's not practical, and too expensive to outfit every car, so you are stuck being able to uncouple ONLY the car or cut attached to the loco. This would be perfect for a shop switcher moving rollign stock to a transfer table in the back shops or something.

                                                 --Randy

I have heard the MTH electro couplers are pretty bad unfortunately, they don't work well. On the subject of couplers, I would like to see couplers in HO that actually stay coupled with ease, like the lionel O gauge ones, only more scale in size. The one thing I dislike about smaller scales is the constant uncoupling.

More importantly though, I would like to see Atlas release some PRR or B&O like position signals that are easy to hook up. I think their plug n' play modern color signals are amazing and it would be nice to see them expand the product line. Or how about some hefty signal bridges?

More crossing flashers, ones that actually operate and are easy to wire up. MTH has the right idea with this, I have no idea when they will be released.

Lastly, it would be great to see more observation cars with lit drumheads and marker lights. Why is it that Kato has released such great Broadway Limited cars in N scale, but there is has never been a PRR set like this in HO?

BLI made some great zephyr cars, but thats about it in HO so far.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the way things in the hobby are going, there is a lot more stuff out today that one couldn't even dream of 10-15 years ago, so I guess I shouldn't complain at all. Walthers, BLI, MTH, Spectrum, all great stuff for HO.

I guess this shouldn't turn into a 'wishlist', but I believe one thing will be wdespread application of the wireless radio control systems which are becoming common enough in garden railroads to the smaller scales (e.g. HO & N)

What's happening w/ custom photo mural backdrops? Are there services yet where you can specify an era and perhaps an area/direction (say Newark - 1970s - from Waverly Yard southward - OK, this is just an example), and get a photo-mural to cover a specified size - at a somewhat reasonable price. I know you can get your digital images blown-up, but a library of images and locations would be great.  I was perusing the Walthers catalog yesterday, and they are still selling the cartoony backdrops from 1970s (maybe earlier) under Instant Horizons - gak, those looked silly back then ('Gotham Hotel - Dining and Dancing') and they look really silly nowadays - better to stick w/ graduated blue sky for now.
More fanciful - flexible OLED screens for use as variable backdrops (at least in key areas).  Image modeling a thunderstorm on your layout using that technology..

 I thnk a true virtual engineer, you wear some electronic gloves, grab your "air" throttle, and pull it, the little model engineer in the cab actually pulls a little throttle and off the engine goes as you wear virtual glasses with a mini camera on the virtual engineer as he can move to your moves, look out the front, pop you head out the window to look back. I think it will be called Wii engineer.

 The next New thing will be smells.  You can see the locomotive, you can hear it, but you can't smell it (unless you have a short in the engine).  Imagine a train of stock cars going by with smells.  There will of course be the usual arguments between the smells crowd and the no smells crowd.

Enjoy

Paul

IRONROOSTER:

 The next New thing will be smells.  You can see the locomotive, you can hear it, but you can't smell it (unless you have a short in the engine).  Imagine a train of stock cars going by with smells.  There will of course be the usual arguments between the smells crowd and the no smells crowd.

Enjoy

Paul

Smells aren't new. There's a company that used to advertise all kinds of smells for railroading back in the 80's. If you go through some back issues of MR you'll see their ads. The company is still around. I've talked to one of their olfactory engineers in email. I just can't recall the name of the company off the top of my head. Started with an 'M' I think.

  Wow I have been away from the scene a while lol.Now I like the Wii idea. I remember teh smells guy. But if I want my midwest layout to smell like the midwest I can jsut open the window!lol