Model trains have been an interest of mine since the 1960’s, although slotcars – HO and 1/32nd – have been my real passion. Activity in all of the above has been sporadic over the years, but now that I am retired I have been devoting much more time to my hobbies.
I got interested in digital control for HO model railroads back in the 1980’s.
While visiting England I was impressed by some Hornby locomotives and bought them just to enjoy as static models. Not long after my wife convinced me to create a loop around our Christmas tree. Things progressed from there.
I built a 9 x 5 foot permanent layout using Hornby track. Four loops, two at ground level, two elevated.
Eventually I learned about Hornby’s original digital control system, called ‘Zero-1’. It pre-dated DCC by maybe a decade. I purchased and set up a system with four throttles and Zero-1 boards in all of my locomotives – about a dozen.
Zero-1 was very basic, but did everything I really wanted to do. I could control any locomotive, forward and reverse. Speed and momentum. I was perfectly happy with it. I didn’t need or want more.
I was able to run my Zero-1 system for decades, maintaining it with parts largely purchased new-old-stock online. But eventually I had to replace the main control box and I couldn’t find one. A very sad day. I had to move on.
So I did my homework and decided my best option – well, pretty much my only option – was to upgrade to a DCC system. I chose to buy an NCE setup. Invested quite a bit of money in it.
Now I should mention that I am a mechanical engineer, and pretty comfortable with computers and programming. But I wouldn’t consider myself a computer geek. I did not take to DCC. It seemed overly complex and difficult to use. All that DCC hardware, my layout and my trains got disused. There was too much work i