Comment by bigstrat2003
14 days ago
That was a great interview. I didn't realize model trains had so much computer stuff going on inside them these days! Maybe I should get into the hobby now that I'm an adult with space at home and disposable income.
Yeah, apparently the whole controlling the train by the voltage¹ and polarity of the electricity in the rails has been replaced with little digital chips in the locomotives that let you control each locomotive independently and not have to have them in separate zones on the layout. I have a bunch of stuff in the basement from when I was thinking of getting back into the hobby around 2001 and then, well, 2001 happened and put that all on hold. Maybe sometime in the future or maybe I’ll just sell it all off.
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1. Or is it current? I have no idea,
> Yeah, apparently the whole controlling the train by the voltage¹ and polarity of the electricity in the rails has been replaced with little digital chips in the locomotives that let you control each locomotive independently and not have to have them in separate zones on the layout.
Can I reuse the tracks (not the locomotives, just the track) from my Marklin HO and switch to digital trains? Sounds cool.
Assuming you have the yellowish, metal tracks (M-Track) it should work more or less.
Electrically the tracks with the connectors for power might have capacitors for radio interference reasons, they're unnecessary for and cause problems with the digital signals.
With regards to the wheel-track geometry, Märklin hasn't changed that much and most modern rolling stock compatible with the "Märklin system" (commonly referred to as "3L"/"AC") should work on M-track. Only the small "industrial radius" tracks might be a bit problematic in general and longer cars can hit turnout signals (mostly a problem with long passenger cars that aren't shortened to 1/100 or 1/93.5 scale). Some manufacturers have created "universal" wheelsets, those might be prone to derailments.
Digital trains need clean rails for proper operation, m-track is more vulnerable to rust and really needs proper rust removal, especially after not being used for a while.|
AFAIK it's not that rare to use m-track for storage yards and "non-visible" track rather than throwing it away.
Yep. And you can simplify your wiring since you only need to put in insulators where there would be a potential short (e.g., a Y loop) and not split the layout into zones for operation.
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And that's just DCC. You can also add in I2C, MQTT, Canbus, Ethernet, BiDiB, Modbus, etc the list goes on
Have a gander at https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/index.shtml#netwo... for a good list of protocols
You absolutely should. Start small and see if you like it then expand.
You don’t want to be 80 and saying: I should have at least tried!