O Scale Trains Magazine Online

There’s a whole bunch of stuff on my mind and I’ll try to cover it in
this space this issue.
Digital Photo Contest
We’re running our digital photo contest again, and this year we again
have some great prizes to award. Please take a look at page 28 for all the
details. The deadline for submissions is August 1.
DCC Technology Moves In
There’s been a whole-lotta chatter, both on- and offline, about Atlas
O’s decision to drop support for 2-Rail TMCC in favor of DC/DCC utilizing
QSI sound. At about the same time, Sunset/3rd Rail announced it
will be using QSI sound in select O Scale locomotives and is considering
offering DCC-ready 2-Rail locomotives if there is enough demand. Sunset
has not offered 2-Rail TMCC. Lionel has not offered any 2-Rail TMCC and
shows no signs of paying any attention to 2-Rail at all. M.T.H. has its own
proprietary DCS control system. Weaver offers 2-Rail locomotives with
and without TMCC sound, as well as 3-Rail TMCC equipped locomotives.
With two major players (Sunset for steam locomotives and Atlas O for
Diesels) offering DCC equipped, or DCC-ready locomotives, O Scalers
are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, and it’s
about time, too. The Hi-Railers have had the lock on the most fun parts of
O Scale for too long, i.e., sound and command operations. In the smaller
scales, DCC is the accepted standard for command and control.
Some people still have a low opinion of DCC for O Scale (our honored
Editor being one of them) based on past experience. The DCC manufacturers
haven’t exactly had O Scalers beating down their doors looking
for higher-current decoders. Even if we were, we’re such a small segment
of the total DCC market, it was likely not profitable to make them.
Now, however, with two manufacturers willing to put DCC into their
2-Rail offerings, the market opens up for the manufacturers and users, as
well.
Why did Atlas drop 2-Rail TMCC? There are several answers. Sales
didn’t meet the per-piece minimums at the factory. Then there is the
license fee to Lionel, slim pickings for licensed TMCC sounds, and some
uncertainty about what will happen with Lionel in bankruptcy. Plus, DCC
is an open architecture, with no license required to use it, unlike TMCC
or M.T.H.’s DCS.
What, DCC is expensive, you say? Well, somehow Atlas is selling their
Gold DC/DCC-equipped Diesels for only $20 more than the Silver DCCready.
If you already have the base station, that’s a real bargain!
Perhaps what’s needed is for one of the DCC manufacturers to put
together a simple user interface that will simplify DCC use for O Scale.
We’ve seen Bachmann’s EZ-DCC for HO and their On30 offerings. That’s
the right direction, but it does not have enough current capability for
standard-gauge O Scale. Maybe all we really need is an O Scale current
booster for the EZ-DCC system (and my wish is granted — see the new
Bachmann ad on page 8). I heard that Maerklin has something called the
Central Station that uses a touch-screen to run their trains. That’s another
possible approach to simplify DCC. I guess what I’m looking for is the
Macintosh among the PCs of DCC, the DCC “...for the rest of us.”
O Scale National and the NMRA
The NMRA has approached the O Scale community, through the O
Scale Kings organization, with the idea of rolling the O Scale National
convention into the NMRA National. John Roberts, the NMRA President,
is an O Scaler. Mike Brestel, who serves on the NMRA Board, is also an
O Scaler. Roberts and Brestel sent their inquiry to Rod Miller, who is the
President of the O Scale Kings. Rod told me the OSKers board was pessimistic
about the idea but that they were continuing talks with the NMRA to
surface issues about logistics, finances and, yes, politics. At this time there
is no host for the O Scale National on the horizon for 2009. Should it come
to pass that no one stands up for 2009 at this year’s banquet, then maybe
merging the O Scale National with the NMRA National, even if only for
one year, might make some sense.
I can think of a few reasons both for and against merging our convention
with the NMRA National. On the plus side, we’d expose O Scale to a
much larger audience of potential newcomers, mostly people moving up
from HO and N Scales. Also, there is economy of scale. With a lot more
people in attendance, it might be less expensive to attend.
On the negative side, I can see O Scale getting lost in the shuffle of
the larger crowd. Manufacturers that serve more than just O Scale (like
Atlas, Bachmann, and now M.T.H.) might be hard pressed to bring out the
O Scale goodies when the majority of the crowd will want to see their
HO and N Scale wares. The NMRA National is more likely to be held in
larger cities (like Philadelphia this year), and that means rooms could be
more expensive than we’re used to paying. In the end, it will have to be
the O Scale community at-large that decides. I’m interested in what you
think about this idea. Write me or email and let me know.
Visit the OST Forum
The OST Forum has been up and running for a couple months now
and many of you have registered so you are able to post your comments.
I invite those of you who have not visited our Forum to do so. It gives
you the opportunity to talk back directly to our regular feature writers. A
great opportunity would be to post your comments at the Forum about
the NMRA proposal I talked about above. This entire column will be
posted on the Forum by the time you read this. You can go to there and
enter your comments and see what others have posted, too. I’ll be notified
automatically anytime one of you posts and, if necessary, I can reply
directly. When we have lots of comments, I’ll edit them and fold them
into the Letters column here in the magazine for those that don’t have
online access.
Bear in mind, this also works for any of the columnists posted at the
Forum. Anything you write there will be sent to them directly. It’s a great
way to communicate your feelings and opinions to our writers.
A Testimonial
I ran into Don Squires of Armstrong Tool Co., at the Indy meet last
September. I asked if he had a diagonal cutter tough enough to cut
through Code 148 rail. He pointed me to a tool display and suggested I
try one of the cutters there. Ed Duddy graciously provided a piece of rail
to nip. The cutter Don had suggested went through the rail like butter.
Ed cautioned me that many times a cutter will work great when new, but
will get dull with repeated use. In that regard, I’ve held my tongue while
I used the cutter working on the layout. Now I feel I can recommend the
PLR 791.00 cutter. It works great and should be in every O Scaler’s tool
box. Don is offering the rail cutter at a special price to OST readers. See
his ad under Armstrong Tools in this issue. If you order one, tell him you
saw his ad in OST.
Keep Hiballin’
u
70 • O Scale Trains - July/Aug ’06