FOr me, it is the sound that got me hooked again, and i would do anything to keep that. I rarly run smoke, and i could live without tmcc if i had to. But sound, nope, have to have it. How about you? WHat is your “Must Have”?
Bill
I would say DCS. I know it is not in your subject line, but if DCS were not available, it would have been TMCC, I have both (I’m a techno-freak, reason for going with the latest craze, DCS).
Secondly would be sound. For my second engine purchase, it was a 3 rail with horn from MTH. Bought new, kept it about a week, and peddled it on Ebay. It was fine for what it was, but since my first engine was command control with all the bells and whistles, it just didn’t float my boat, nor that of my boys.
Motors. And wheels. Lights are nice. Reverse unit. Couplers.
Everything else is luxury (smoke, electrocouplers, command control, etc.)
[:D]
Well, I just have a train (with a headlight), transformer and track - no prototypical sound, little smoke, no command system, nothing really scale. I guess I could not live without the smell of ozone and that classic ‘electrical train’ roar of the train on the track.
For me, it’s the smoke. I love the smell of it, whether coming from pellets or liquid.
During periods of train inactivity, I often find myself putting a strech of track above my desk, and running a diesel with a fan-driven smoke unit just for the smoke.
I love the smoke too. DCS is for the birds.
TMCC and remote couplers, the rest is meaningless.
Ditto, what Rod said!
Elliot, I can get my couplers to UNcouple, but how do you get them to COUPLE?
For me it’s sound—even if the sound isn’t “in scale.” See my other thread[:D]
I don’t understand DCS, so I went with TMCC. I BARELY understand that.
Sound would be #1. command control(DCS, TMCC, DCC-take your pick) #2. Smoke(in diesels[V]) #3. All the rest are not that necessary(for me at least[:)]) of course, these are the addons, not the basic equipment![:D][:D]
nice topic. I gave this a lot of thought and for me, it would have to be running the trains at slow speeds, esp. starts and stops, either thru DCS or the newer engines which are able to crawl slower than the PW models.
why?
Three reasons.
- Makes the layout appear much larger if it takes longer
- Fast speeds make me dizzy and puke
- I enjoy switching moves and a jackrabbit locomotive doesn’t handle well with switching
dav
of course (quite simply)… my trains
Besides the trains I can do without the multiple train thing. I also am addicted to the smoke-smell, and would love to have sound[:P][:P] (which I havn’t yet).
I had my h0 engines running with an early multiple train system, which allowed 5 engines, but I had collisions all the time because my eyes normally only can see one direction at a time…
I also appriciate slow speeds and found that the old ac motors usually are capable of running smooth at low speeds…
Smoke, since I run only postwar I don’t care about all this high tech garbage
Fan driven smoke units.
Fill my room with train smoke!!![:D]
In order of importance to me:
(1) the head light with the (2)smoke behind it, the (3)whistler, and then the (4)noise from all the wheels.
Angelo
I could be happy with just Postwar Lionel; the sounds, the smell, and all the action.
But for modern trains, I like the sounds the most. I don’t care about the rest. Even then, I don’t care to hear electronic sounds all the time.