This section describes how DCC has been used to control the railway. This was not, really, a controversial decision. I'm a techie; the railway is new; and it is large requiring control of tens of track sections. DCC was an obvious choice to me; I recognise that it isn't right for everyone.

But DCC is just the beginning: there's a lot more to control of this railway than just DCC. The power is sectioned into zones, with power management - this means that a short in one area doesn't remove power everywhere (DCC can be a blunt instrument in that regard). The track has occupancy detection, so that "the system" knows what track sections have trains in them. The points are DCC controlled - that isn't terribly unusual nowadays. The signals are (or will be) fully automatically controlled: that means a signal will go red when a train drives past it with no human or computer intervention. If the track ahead is blocked by a point set against it - the signal is red. If the signal in front is red, the one behind is orange; again all with no intervention.

The thing that enables all of this to happen isn't DCC. DCC itself plays its part, but it is only a component of a successful system. The real enabler is the command bus and its accessories. This is a Digitrax system, with LocoNet as the command bus and accessories from CML Electronics. The combination makes a very powerful system!

DCC_boosters

Using This Site

Searching

The web site can be searched: type a search term (e.g. "DAC10") into the search box on the right hand side of the header, and hit enter. the search engine will find words matching the search string in the main body of the site, but it won't search attached documents (e.g. the product manuals).

"Read More"

Many articles are displayed one after the other. some are quite short, and say "read more" at the bottom. Click that to read the remainder of the article.