To add to this topic. 90% of my trains are PW with some MPC thrown in. Have 5 TMCC engines and 3 Legacy's and like them all. They work great and the sounds are fantastic. They are all can motors with flywheels and can creep along at slow speeds great even without cruise. I think Fast Trac is great.

But again, controlling a ZW and throwing 0-22 and 0-72 switchs with Lionels switchs that light up is the absolute best. And tublar track is great.

Not to be nasty but if I wanted to be "scale" I would go HO or O scale.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Delbridge:

The one thing I don't like about the CAB-1 is there's no positive stop position. I've gotten use to the free-spinnning knob, but I'd still prefer a solid stop although a readout would give me a visual indication of when I'm about to come to a halt or at least close to 0 mph.

Bob,
A solid stop isn't possible for command control. Supose you were running two engines with TMCC. You get them both going to about 40 scale mph. Now you throttle back one of them and come to a stop.

Now you want to re-address the other engine going at 40 mph. The position of the red wheel that brought the first engine to a stop is now the 40 mph position for the second engine. There can be no absolute stop position without defeating the purpose of command control.

A readout on a handheld, as you indicate, is the only way to see what speed step you are on.

Jim

I'm like serows1, I have a command setup new in the box but have never pulled it out and used it.

Thanks Jim!

I've gotten so that I can control all 4 of my engines pretty good with the knob. My newest one, a MTH NW-2, runs smooth and slow. My old locosound 2-8-0 is a bit jerky, but I think it may be the rigid wheelbase going around the 0-54 curves (including self-induced kinks in the trackwork).

If I ran multiple trains, around multiple loops, on a large layout, I could see command control having a purpose. But on my small layout conventional is fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Delbridge:

The one thing I don't like about the CAB-1 is there's no positive stop position. I've gotten use to the free-spinnning knob, but I'd still prefer a solid stop although a readout would give me a visual indication of when I'm about to come to a halt or at least close to 0 mph.

You can get an immediate, positive stop with the CAB-1 by pushing the DIR button. Obviously, you should slow down first.

Allan

I have four trains on the layout running conventional with stop and starts crossovers and all that fun stuff. I run those through a New ZW a old ZW and powermaster with Legacy and Cab1 remotes. Then have a main line few sidings a couple of yards set up in command. Most of the turnouts and 1/2 accessories are run comand through SC1's and SC2's. The main line has 2 180 powerhouses through a TPC400 so have the power when needed also can run command or conventional. Lot of fun!

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Delbridge:
Thanks Jim!

If I ran multiple trains, around multiple loops, on a large layout, I could see command control having a purpose. But on my small layout conventional is fine.

Bob,
There I times I much prefer the feel of a ZW handle in conventional. In fact, whenever I run postwar on the layout, that is the way it is done. I never thought we would have all the control options we have today!

teckie
i am new to the Z-4000 remote but I will try to answer your question on how it works.

Below is the function diagram for the remote, it pretty much explains how it works: The thumb wheel increases/decreases track voltage and the buttons duplicate the Z-4000 arrangemnt. The remote is battery powered.




The is a reciever that plugs into the Z-4000 and runs off the Z-4000 power - no battery.



receiver plued into rear of Z-4000



Note that a single remote can control up to three z-4000 transformers.
Hope I have helped to answer the question

Allan,
For the past week or so I've been slowing down to just above being stopped and then hit the DIR button. Before I was trying to get the engine to stop completely before I hit the direction button and more times than not it went into neutral.

Jim, I've thought about getting a unit with a handle but so far the big red knob has served it's purpose

Charlie, thanks for those pix!

Could the Z-4000 remote be hooked up to a power supply other than a Z-4000? Even if the plugs/wires matched would it still work with any PS?

I run one loop conventional and another with TMCC. The conventional seems to just run itself and its allot of stationary time by the transformer, but I turn it on and don't have to worry about it. The TMCC line is were all the action is, multiple trains on one loop, operate sounds from other points in the room, and can turn on/off smoke for added affects. I think eventially I will have everything TMCC but still have the conventional loop to run my low dollar locos. Maybe a power master is in order, but we shall see. I think with the type of layout 'around the walls' with manual switch throws, lends to walking with the trains so I like the TMCC option.

quote:

with manual switch throws, lends to walking with the trains

J Daddy, That's why I re-hooked my PowerMaster and CAB-1. It lets me be beside my trains so I can see what's happening yet didn't cost the price of an engine and not as many headaches with the wiring. For a while all I had was 2 wires going to the layout using this setup. I recently added 3 more feeders. Folks say command control is a breeze, but I keep seeing a lot of the same problems posted in both command sub-sections of the forum. There's a reason OGR doesn't have a "Conventional" sub-forum, it's because it works almost flawlessly

Whoever comes up with an affordable command system, where you can take ANY layout, remove the current power system (and leave the wiring in place), and plug in the new system will lead the pack.

On my layout I run both DCS and TMCC. It has taken some experimentation to get either system up and running correctly. With TMCC I had to experiment with the location of the Command Base, but got the problem resolved by locating the unit near the geographical center of the layout. DCS was another problem; with some 750 feet of track, about 66 switches, I was having trouble getting a strong signal all across the layout. Friend of mine and I spent quite a number of hours, pairing up lead wires, which, in some cases maybe as long as 60'; installing 24 volt lights in strategic locations under the layout; and, finally, developing a "star distribution system" rather than the buss wire system that most of us used for years. In order to maintain a stronger DCS signal, virtually all of my tracks are "live" whenever the power is on. Only exception is in the passenger yards where I am able to turn passenger car lights off when not in use.

The problem for me in running any conventional engines is that with all of the DCS and TMCC engines sitting around the layout, when I use conventional power, various engines indiscriminently "kick off" or start up when I don't want them to. All of a sudden I find that any number of my DCS engines, and occasionally TMCC engines will be running and, in order to turn them off, the controller must be turned on, the engine addressed, started up and then shut off. Or you can simply turn off the whole layout, let everything "reset" and go back to running conventional trains, but by that time the idea of running conventional has lost it's color.

As a result of this hassle, I virtually never run my old, conventional trains any longer. Instead I now have a bunch of "shelf queens" that simply take up space. Any of you guys also experiencing this incompatibility problem?


Paul Fischer

quote:

As a result of this hassle, I virtually never run my old, conventional trains any longer. Instead I now have a bunch of "shelf queens" that simply take up space. Any of you guys also experiencing this incompatibility problem?

Put those post war conventional engines up for sale on the board and that will take care of your compatibility and shelf queen issues.
Rob

quote:

As a result of this hassle, I virtually never run my old, conventional trains any longer. Instead I now have a bunch of "shelf queens" that simply take up space. Any of you guys also experiencing this incompatibility problem?

I don't own any DCS equiped locos but I do own a number of TMCC engines. They play quite nicely with my non command Williams, Weaver, K Line, Atlas, Lionel, MTH and PW locos. As I posted earlier I only run conventional with the exception of a few Bachmann ON30 trains that I run in my Christmas Garden using DCC..