What will be the next innovation in HO scale MRR?

[tpatrick]

Smoke. Real smoke. Not that wispy stuff like a dying cigarette. I mean genuine coal smoke taken from a real locomotive, maybe UP 3985 climbing Sherman Hill, and compressed into cylinders similar to CO2. It will be metered out in glorious billowy clouds of black as our model steamers roll down the track.

And not to leave the diesels out, there will be genuine diesel exhaust taken from SD-40s pushing up and around Horseshoe.You can have a smog alert in your own basement. Maybe even an EPA visit. These innovations will open a whole new world of realism for us.

[tpatrick]

I didn't realize there was another thread about diesel exhaust. I was just tongue-in-cheek, but maybe there really is some interest in such a thing. Wow.

[DigitalGriffin]

Battery backup for bad pickups/dead sections of track

True two way trainsponding that will allow the train to report it's position on the track.

Flat panel tranducers for speakers moved to engine instead of tender on steam locomotives.

Improved sound decoders from Digitrax and Lenz

Additional sound decoders for things like conductors onboard passenger trains.

But these are just my ideas.

Advanced block occupancy detection to automatically slow down and stop trains. (Similar to Lenz Asymetrical DCC)
~Don

[jwr_1986]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse


For instance:

Add variables of steam, water, fuel, and sand to steamers. Making it so you have to stop and fill-up and switch engines.

Add momentum to the train with the addition of each car making them harder to start and stop. (and making it impossible ti just reverse direction by flipping a switch)

BE able to visually know the location of all trains on the layout.

The first thing on your list the stop and fill-up is already in an RP if I remember right. I think it's a CV in the 900's somewhere that hasn't been implemented by any manufacturers yet. I heard about it in another DCC forum either digitrax or JMRI. The other things would be awesome but on apracticle side i can do them now.

The momentum can be modified on the fly using ops mode programming (a breeze with JMRI) and our panel (currently under construction) will have bicolor LED's linked to block occupancy detectors of Rob Paisley's design. With tweaking they could later be integrated with the JMRI software from what I understand.

If they could make it cheap I would love to see it all happen I am a big nerd at heart. [:D]

Jesse

[tutaenui]

What will be the next innovation in HO scale MRR? Easy! I ts happening now. The move to O scale and On30 in particular. Right!
Next question please.

[Anonymous]

How about the new live steam OO locomotive from Hornby that heats up the water from the current on the track? Could this be the latest and greatest for HO steam? It would be marvelous if it was coupled with DCC sound.

Here is a link for your perusal --> http://www.hornbyrailways.com/pages/livestm_live.aspx

[oleirish]

How about a sound system for steam and diesel with a switch to change it from one to the other?And less than $50.00.

OLE'IRISH

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DigitalGriffin

Battery backup for bad pickups/dead sections of track

I think the new Lenz "Gold" decoders support this - certainly I've seen such a device mentioned. It apparently charges from the track and stores enough power to move a few feet. Good for locos with only a few pickups!

jaimezepeda - trust me, that loco doesn't need electronic sound, it already makes great steam loco noises "the old fashioned way" from what I've heard. I agree it should be DCC compatible though - I refuse to believe they couldn't have designed it to use DCC functions to control the various valves, etc and they'd sell a lot more of them if it was able to co-exist with other locos. Individual locos from that range are about the same price as BLI steamers, and I'd definitely be looking at buying one if it was possible to fit DCC to them.

[WilmJunc]

Within five years I predict that all locos will be able to run on DC or DCC and have a sound option right out of the box from the major manufactuers.

Also, dcc controled couplers at least on the locos.

[cwclark]

I belive that electronics are getting so small and compact that one day we will see moving minature figures..say an HO scale brakeman that can walk back and forth from turnout to turnout or people that can wave as a train goes by or an engineer that can wave from the cab of his locomotive...stuff like that

[Anonymous]

DCC controlled couplers, allowing you to un-couple locomotives or cars on the fly.

Factory-installed ditch lights on all diesels.

DCC controlled passenger car lights.

Track-powered FRED's connected to miniture sockets on any freight car.

Decent sound systems, complete with communication between the locomotive sound system and a sub-woofer under the layout to give the full rich sound you'd expect to hear.

Mark in Utah

[cbq9911a]

Regionalized distribution and marketing, with regional retail distribution, on higher end items. For example, a good model of SP 4449 would be distributed to the California market and a Nebraska Zephyr trainset would be sold in Chicago.

[skerber]

I second Mark in Utah's statement---"Factory-installed ditch lights on all diesels." I would like to add also that all the ditch lights work like the real thing in DC or DCC.

Also, I think wireless controlled switches in the turnouts would be very handy--place small, but powerful enough batteries inside the switches, and all you have to do is press a button and it switches (I personally do not find wiring my cup of tea--I like landscaping).

Steve

[chutton01]

Well
Perhaps just like Boley when they first appeared (OK, maybe a little later, when they got away from using decal for grills) - 'The Affordable Alternative' (or something like that - now their slogan is 'Where the Action is'. And their rather good truck models were/are that - good and affordable.
Anyway, we probably will see a few players heading back for the affordable niche, although I am not sure when...

And, by the way - it's 2005 - where the Dickens is my Dremel Home Laser Saw? Yes, I do want nice straight clean cuts done easily with minimal loss of material (and yes, there will be protective guards to prevent hobbiest finger-tip loss...

[dinwitty]

I tend to feel that couplers on the prototype are still manual, there are manual uncoupler tools to uncouple anywhere and cheap. I tend to like the magnamatic delayed uncoupling. I have some old couplers that work like the prototype, you pull the pin and it opens. HO couplers. Install a lift lever and your there.
DCC uncoupling raises the price of cars, but of course BLI has their pricey hoppers, I have no plans to buy them tho.

I think about sound and well, pushing a button is one way, but I want more sound flexibility blowing that whistle, locomotive engineers could play their whistles and get a lot of character out of them, I would have a spring slider for the whistle that could adequately reflect the characteristics of a whistle.

[Anonymous]

I just found this forum.I like Ian (the English chap's) tongue in cheek suggestion re mobs of commuters rushing to a train. May this this could be achieved by making the people out out of jelly or something. Install vacuum pumping equipt in the carriages, and watch the jelly bods all get sucked into the carriages when the doors open!!!!

[Anonymous]

I'd like to see animated backdrops - once flat screens are cheap enough (in ten years or so) you could have a real photograph or movie displayed on the flat screen backdrop. Imagine modeling just a few tracks of a large yard with the rest of the yard on the backdrop, with moving trains and all... or just an animated sky with real clouds and the sun moving across the scene. Could be done now with a back projection screen if you had a *lot* of room..

[dragenrider]

How about something simple--like an engineer which will turn to face the direction the engine is moving.

[WickhamMan]

I'd really like to see the hobby get entirely away from electrical current flowing through the rails and everywhere else. I think the nex BIG innovation is going to be the application of fuel cells in engines. This would allow us to get rid of all of the DC/DCC wiring crap and focus on modeling. Fuel cell trains could "refuel" at realistic looking fuel pumps right on the layout and be controlled using WiFi or some other wireless control mechanism. This would also be the case for small animated scenes and a host of other applications. Imagine:

No more wiring problems (loop backs, shorts, etc.)
Computer (or blackberry or PDA or ...) controlled layouts

This would also free manufactures from "compatibility" constraint. With the exception of a standardized "fuel cap", manufactures could add any feature or create any type of power consumption engine, car, accessory that they would like. Track gauge would be the only compatibility issue but we would no longer have incompatibilities within a particular scale (i.e. marklin vs. ...).

This is realistically only a few years away.

[Anonymous]

I want to see affordable DCC, and a reliable uncoupling system. I also dream of having my layout wired to the bsement door, so that when I open the door the trains start running, stopping at sidings to drop cars, etc, and have it so that I can disconnect it from that and run them myself whenever I want to. Also, I want to see live steam in HO that is run by the track power, in a variety of engine styles, for about the same price as an electric engine. Also live diesel engines, same as the steamers I mentioned. Also, a lot of special effects the towns and roads. People that walk, cars that drive, etc.

[MidlandPacific]

I'd love to see someone harness the potential of a PC for operations. Here's an idea: an NMRA DCC-compatible PC program that can control all of the mechanical and communications functions for CTC or a train-order dispatcher. Perhaps something that could be easily programmed to undertake the functions we parcel out to operators, for an operating session when nobody's available. Imagine, for example, that you wanted to just be the yardmaster on your railroad: you have a computer that's programmed to move trains, handle meets, keep operations on a fast-time schedule - all while letting you handle the one portion of the operation that interests you.

And if you wanted to set it up, perhaps something that would allow a DS to type in a formatted train order, printing it out for operators at various points along the line - in duplicate, so they could give a copy to your engineers?

[cbq9911a]

Manufacturing and production will make it feasible to produce limited runs of locomotives for railroads that were unique, like the TP & W's 3 Alco RS-11s or the Columbus and Greenville's one Baldwin AS-416.