ndbprri see the next iteration involving virtual reality to run controls from a real engine while looking out the cab window of the model.
I doubt that will happen. Sounds like a train sim would be pretty close to what you want.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
All the informal surveys on this forum, and other places, magazines, other forums, etc, suggest amoung HO an N scale modelers, DCC use is between 50% and 60%.
A quick scan thru some of the Facebook groups suggests about the same.
To the OP, I have ZERO interest in a control system that simulates a engine cab.
Sheldon
ndbprrDoes anybody have statistical data regarding how many of us are using DCC. Not interested in opinions.
I doubt that there is any statistical data availalbe here so opinions is likely all you are going to get. Now MR magazine or other magazines may have done a poll, but the figures are probably not statistically significant.
ndbprrDoes anybody have statistical data regarding how many of us are using DCC. Not interested in opinions. i see the next iteration involving virtual reality to run controls from a real engine while looking out the cab window of the model.
I'm no historian, so I don't know when people started running AC powered model railroads, but popularity of AC power was definitely in vogue in the post-war years. At some point, DC power became the standard, at least in scale modeling. Then, DCC power emerged around 1993. The evolution of DCC power brought about a sea change in model railroading because, for the first time, commands could be issued to individual locomotives.
I personally would not consider virtual reality as a new form of model railroading because it would not involve scale model locomotives running on actual track. What would be a further evolution in model railroading would be something like wireless control. Imagine an actual layout that could be operated without any wiring whatsoever.
Rich
Alton Junction
ndbprrDecoders are up to 21 pins from 8 initially. Who knows when that will be obsolete?
The introduction of 21-pin decoders didn't make 8- or 9-pin decoders obsolete. They still work, and will still work for decades to come.
I've pretty much always had trains. For years, though, I enjoyed war simulation games, both cardboard ones like Avalon Hill and later digital ones like Harpoon. I played around with train simulators, but found them unsatisfying. Then I discovered Flight Simulator, and I was hooked.
Eventually, though, I drifted back to model railroading. The thing I had been missing was the actual reality of it. This was solid, real, something I could hold in my hands, not disappearing when I turned the power off. The first night I powered up a DCC engine, I was hooked, even on a small oval. Likewise, I smiled with childlike pleasure at learning to cast walls with Hydrocal. I've slowly learned scenery techniques and improved my wiring skills, all just to make my railroad better.
So no, I'm not interested in virtual reality for my railroad. There's a physical presence that's important to me. To me, the challenge is to get my models as close to reality as possible. Sometimes, I even give names to my little people.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hello All,
ndbprrDoes anybody have statistical data regarding how many of us are using DCC.
Other than an impromptu poll of the members of these forums and other user groups, I doubt any exists.
When I was in college; studying photojournalism, the digital camera was in it's infancy.
There was much gloom-and-doom speak about how our jobs would be obsolete because cameras would be in everyone's hands and newspapers wouldn't hire full-time photographers, they would just pay for images submitted by the general public.
Well, as it turned out photojournalism is alive and well, albeit in a different form from what was "when I went to school".
Many modelers prefer DC block control over the "New & Improved" DCC.
I suspect when the next iteration of model railroad control comes along some will still embrace DC, many will stick with DCC and others will support whatever new technologies are available.
The decoder is a single component in a vast myriad of components that make up this great hobby.
Many have speculated about "what's next".
ndbprrNot interested in opinions.
For the immediate future that might be the only thing available.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
There is a very large contingency still holding on to DC. You can't call DCC the norm. 8 pin or 21 pin doesn't matter. Ninty percent of my locomotive fleet only uses two or even one lighting function.
Pete.
Large is psychological, so large anything prototypical, or large in scale, is gonna cost. Always gonna cost. Trouble is, with large comes the apparent flaws, missing details, surfaces making the material more obviously fake...that kinda thing. So, large almost certainly means more going on, and that means time and money....and materials. And heft. And complication because there's more going on, like more sounds, animation, mechanical action. It's gonna cost. Always.
DCC+ and ++ are both out and gaining fans. There are other systems that are gaining popularity, but I can't opine on their efficacy, ease of use, redundancy, potential for evolutionary growth, etc.
DCC works well enough, but I think most of us agree it needs a substantial improvement in how well the engines run reliably with iffy pickup. On-board storage would make the problems of DCC largely go away. From there, DCC works like a dream as far as I am concerned.
Few things go obsolete unless there's a substantial improvement in a rival, or when the user responds to novelty. We're routinely encouraged, and there's that darned marketing psychology again, to want the latest gizmo.
DCC works, it has history, it has fans, its expandable...it's just this infernal power reliability problem with supposedly dirty track.
As for live steam in scale, YouTube is replete with videos showing all types of locomotives running at large outdoor clubs all across the planet, from Oz to the USA and in EU.
Not much question that dcc is the standard today for layout control. Decoders are up to 21 pins from 8 initially. Who knows when that will be obsolete? Does anybody have statistical data regarding how many of us are using DCC. Not interested in opinions. i see the next iteration involving virtual reality to run controls from a real engine while looking out the cab window of the model. That shouldn't cost more then four figures. That would be the ultimate in my opinion but I doubt I will still be here if and when it happens.