I saw this a couple of days ago on the net. Absolutely mindblowing.
Just imaging your little Diesel loco has to go to the service centre to “fill up” with fuel. This fuel is going to run out and then the loco is going to stop. With you cab controller and RailCom feedback, you can check your fuel levels and then go back to the depot or find another depot to fill up. The same can be done with water and coal.
A fully loaded loco or train is going to handle differently to a lighter empty loco or train. RailCom can feed back to the driver the status of the load. The train will then handle differently depending on the load and track. A double header unit may even have to be called in to help it up an incline when loaded.
A passenger express train loads up with passengers and deservers priority as it gets closer to the city centre. RailCom tells the signal boxes en-route which train it is and what the priorities are for the train - with the prototype, the train may have had indicator disks or these days, they use radio.
The possibilities are endless and this adds to the realism and game-play of model railways. This sort of thing when packaged right could bring the kids back into the hobby in a big way.
There’s a RailCom.net out there, but they seem to be a product supplier for real-world railroad communications. Railcom.org is a password-protected site, and the next one down the line is part of Lenz.
Shades of the Wizard of Monterey. As I recall, Allen had a cab connected to an electric meter. When you ran out of “juice” the loco stopped and you’d be stranded if not in a yard.
I want to think that many years ago, Model Railroader had a plan for an electronic devise that would simulate fuel (diesel) and water (steam) use based on the voltage being used on the track. Yeah, very primitive, but I’m sure it could be updated and somehow incorporated into those that are into operations.
For all that I Know, Lenz has been promoting Railcom for several years. All that is available now is a display that can show that decoder yy is in that section. And this only works with a Lenz Booster/command central and certain Lenz/ZimoDecoders. Digitrax is promoting transponding as an alternative. We will see what the future will bring[:)]
electrolove,
No offense, but this is hardly new information. You can read about in the December 2003 Model Railroader in an article called “Third-Generation DCC”. Or you can search the forum here for info, just search for “NMRA Bi-Directional” communication. Or you can read the FAQ on Digitrax’ website and note that most of this has been possible with Digitrax Transponding for the last 9 years.
Either way, there’s a wealth of opportunities that exist for using Bi-Directional decoders. The only problem is one can only imagine the programming and serious computer time that would be required to take full advantage of such a system.
electrolove,
The main problem is like anything else, time and money. To get the most out of it, you have to connect a computer to your layout which most DCC users have yet to do. Then you have to buy block detectors and wire them into your layout. Then you have to add the RailCom or Transponding receivers to various block detectors.
It’s a fairly complicated operation to pull off, which is probably why so few have even tried to take advantage of what Bi-Directional decoders can do.
It seems that Railcom and Lenz’s biggest issue is waiting for the NMRA to finalize the standard, which is half done. I am happy that Lenz has given this technology to the NMRA, but am disappointed that it is taking so long to get done. I almost wish Lenz just went ahead and just launched it and said here everybody, go ahead and use it if you want.