The Westcott/Blunt throttles were developed to provide smooth realistic model railroad control in 1968. Don Fiehmann developed a similar throttle with the SST/7 in 1975. Both of these throttles were for analog DC and featured train and independent brake simulation.
Has anyone had experience with either or both of these throttles? In particular, did anyone actually use the brake features? Does anyone know of a side/by/side comparison of these throttles?
Simple answer for me - no. Why , then, am I responding? I did use, for some years, the TAT-V successor developed in the late 1980s or early 1990s and published in MR. I used the brake feature all the time - and loved it. I also used the momentum feature unless I was switching. My routine was to bring the train up to "cruising" speed and then control the train with the brakes rather than the throttle. Worked great. I ultiumately switched to DCC only because of the lack of a successful walk-around TAT-V (a walk-around TAT-V actually was developed, and I put my toes in the water by building two of them, but neither worked for more than a few hours at a time, and I quickly tired of having my "play" sessions brought to an unplanned close needing the replacement of an IC and, less frequently but still too frequently, the replacement of the relay controlling the direction of the train. I'll note that my TAT-IVs seemed to be pretty bullet-proof once correctly assembled. For me at least, they worked for hundreds of hours without even the hint of a problem.
I was in a hobby store and got into a group conversation with a couple of model rails whose day jobs were locomotive engineers. They said the TAT- IV and V were the most realistic throttles they'd ever used.
Unfortunately I warn you in advance that some of the parts for the TAT-IV are long out of production. This may also be true for the TAT-V but the greater problem for the TAT-V is that the MR article describing its circuit was literally riddled with errors. Although my recollection is that not one but two sets of corrections were published, the actual fact is that it STILL had multiple errors remaining.
Steamnut,
Did you build the TAT IV with the Dennis Blunt brake circuits? I am thinking the "train brake" would work well for realistic train control on the road, while the "independent brake" would work well for switching. The usual routine for a 1:1 switcher is to close the throttle and pump the independent, reducing the speed by half each time an easy sign is given. A similar effect can be had with a two button throttle, but I like the idea of the more realistic brake controls.
Thanks for warning about the TAT-V.