As I get more and more into the hobby and specially DCC I realize I cant remember loco adress’. Now I know you should use the road number but before I got into all this jazzy stuff I just changed the address from 03 to the next number. But now with a lot of decoders installed I realized I cant remember the numbers. I want to of course use the road numbers but noticed I have a few locomotives with the same number (different road name) So has anyone had the same problem as me and needed a cheat sheet?
Also I think the cheat sheets are helpful and knowing what locomotive your calling up with model and road number. Sort of like a Locomotive card.
I’m not on DCC yet but I saw a club layout at a show where they had little index cards all over the layout. I think it was DCC turnout addresses. Didn’t notice any Q cards on the locos.[:)]
I figure I wont be using Q cards. I think I’m gonna use it more of reminder sheet of what address I already have so I dont have 2 locomotives withthe same address.
Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a “cheat” sheet if it helps you run your layout more efficiently.
I haven’t done this myself, but I have heard of some people keeping index card files on all their locomotives. With DCC, this can be a very useful tool to remember the loco’s address, but it is also a convenient place to record all the other CV’s you reprogram for whatever reason (ditch lights, rule 17 lighting, Mars light, etc.). I have been away from my layout for 3 months, and won’t be back for 4 months… you think I’m going to be able to remember all those CV values without writing them down? The answer is “no,” and unfortunately, I didn’t write them down before I left! [:(]
You can take it a step further and keep files on all your rolling stock as well, to record things like what kind of couplers, wheelsets, truck frames, etc. you put on them.
If you don’t like messing with the index cards, you can always use a single sheet of paper to record the key information, or you could get fancy and use an Excel spreadsheet.
I would reprogram all the numbers I could (to the engine #), that would give you fewer numbers to remember (the duplicates) and/or keep on a cheat sheet.
I use a spiral index card booklet to keep track of pertinent rolling stock info.
If your not able to use the 4 digiit road # as I do you could change the last 2 digits on the loco with decals or dry transfers. That would give 100 #'s. I had to change the digits on a couple of identical units. I would think cheat sheets would get confusing after4 4 or 5, and believe me if the hobby grabs you good enough 4 or 5 are easy to accumulate. I’ve been in the hobby 36 yrs. & have over 50 engines & countings. Most colors, sizws & fonts of #'s are available cheap for a sheet of #'S. Just an idea. Tweet.
I have finally gotten to the point where it is becoming difficult to keep track of my DCC engines especially ones that I have M-U ed and I forgot which the lead engine was.
My solution was to get a roll of 1/2" wide magnetic tape and using my label creator I made a magnetic label for each of my DCC locomotives. I have a dri-mark board that will hold magnets and I made a column for “LEAD” and columns for “TRAILING” and anytime I rearrange the consist all I have to do is swap around the magnets.
I also have a diagram of my 12 track roundhouse so I can remember which engine is in what stall…just stick the magnetized label on the right stall number. It’s a bear to try to see engine numbers that far away in a dimly lit roundhouse!
When I started in DCC, I created an Excel spreadsheet with all my locomotive data, including which CV’s had been re-configured from the default.
I said, “What a good boy am I.” Then I had a disk crash on the dang computer and lost it. Oh, well. Maybe someday I’ll put it back together.
I’ve got a couple of duplicate road numbers, but those are very old engines which I honestly haven’t run in months. I think I made one of them 2760, and the other 2766. Close enough.
For me, it’s more difficult to remember the seldom-used keystroke commands, like the ones for programming. I usually end up consulting the manual, which I keep convieniently on the floor with the piles of layout construction materials, old plastic bags from my LHS and the rest of my pack-rat collection of junk I’ll never use. Some day, I’ll make up a small card and paste it on the back of the remote.
Don’t know if this is any help, but what I did is used the first (of four) digits for the railroad. So, Amtrak (A is 1) locos are 1xxx using the last three digits on the model. Biggest RR is PRR 2xxx and C&O 3xxx. The rest are the 4 digit road number regardless of railroad and I only had 2 conflicts. I personally have never liked trying to change numbers on a model as it is hard to find matching decals and make them match the printed numbers.
trust me I have been in the hobby for 1998 my first locomotive was a cheap pancake motor something another. After that went I got GP60 Demestrator unit from Athearn Thats when this hobby bug bit me. Now I believe I have 25 engines 1 SDL39 on the way when Kaslo shops gets it done. I’m waiting for Athearns MP15AC in Milwaukee Road colors, and hoping to find anything with the new BNSF swoosh scheme at the local Train Shows. SO I get confused with th locomotives. Only a few of decooders tho, rather be working on the layout than install decoders.
Ed,
I like your idea I may just use it. I know a lot of railroads use this method in everday practice or use to. I have a tape showingthe WC using them at Steven Point yard here in WI.
I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET THE CLUB MENBERS TO LIST THEIR LOCO. AND ADDRESS ON A POSTER AND DISPLADED IN OUR MEETING ROOM. DCC HAS GROWEN FROM NOVELITY TO NORM IN A SHORT TIME. I THINK THAT SYSTEM SHOULD WORK .
If (God forbid) I ever convert, I wouldn’t need a cheat sheet. All of my locomotives (and other powered rolling stock) have blue ‘motive power’ 3x5 cards (just like car cards in format, very different in detail.) No operator can move a locomotive unless (s)he has the appropriate motive power card (or cards, in the case of multi-powered MU sets) in hand (along with the rest of the train deck.) Adding the DCC address to the tonnage rating, speed restrictions etc. would be no big thing.
The only exception involves hostling a locomotive in the service area - in which case the card is in the appropriate slot of the service area card box, readily available for easy consultation.
Let’s hear it for expanding the car card and waybill system to ALL rolling stock, not just revenue freight cars.
Chuck,Actually DCC is rather simple…If you use the last 2 digits in say my old C&O GP9 # 6128 you simply punch in 28 and you’re good to go.Simple No? If I wanted to move 6161 then I would punch in 61.Now for 6061 I used 60.See how simple? Thats why I am wondering why anybody would need a cheat sheet…I still recall all of my old DCC addresses and its been going on 4 years.[:D]
Has anyone else noticed the trend in the hobby to make it a JOB!? If it isn’t loco numbers organization it is making out car cards, way bills , and switch lists. On some model railroads, some poor bugger gets stuck sitting at a desk “dispatching”, while others are “working the yard” sorting car cards to make up trains for some one else to “work” over the railroad spotting cars at specific locations, and picking up others to be transported “off the layout” to other world destinations.
Seems to me we need a Stephen Hawking to get us organized and keep track of the “Black Holes”. And all of this in the name of “FUN”! Blame it on whoever you want, the computer crashed, the four year old rearranged the magnets on the board, or the cat peed on the organization chart, all the work of mice, men, and modelers is fraught with catastrophy. Hopefully we will develop the skill set to organize our “work” in a fashion that will work for us so that we can get back to running some trains and having some fun.
Luckily DCC has simplified wiring of the layout enough to allow us to address the next great frontier, keeping the CVs and loco numbers straight. Unfortunately as we baby boomers fade toward the twilight, remembering why we are in this “hobby” keeps slipping away like the pile of manuals and LHS bags stacked under the the layout.
I for one will continue to try to develop the organizational tools needed to keep my sanity and have fun “playing” with trains. Now why am I standing here, I know I was going to do “something”…?
Will,I have notice over the last few years most modelers complicate the simple and overstate the oblivious while doing what isn’t necessary or actually needed.