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Subject: 
Question for model RR gurus
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Fri, 17 Aug 2001 22:29:00 GMT
Viewed: 
404 times
  
Why is it that there is such a huge chunk of the MRR hobby (both Lego and
traditional) that puts sooooo much time into automation?  My personal
suspicion is that it's just because automation is cool and fun, but I'm not
sure.

A lot of the stuff that I see go by here (since I started paying attention,
admittedly) is talking about automating switches, yards, roundhouses, or
programmed routes through DCC or even more complicated automation.  Maybe
I'm seeing something that isn't there, but it seems like there's a stigma
against doing things manually on a MRR, and that seems kinda odd to me.

My confusion, I'll confess is stemming from the fact that I work near a
fairly large switch yard, and this is all stuff that gets done manually.  If
a track needs to be switched, a guy in orange coveralls jumps out of a truck
and flips the big lever.

So am I out to lunch, or is everyone else? ;)

James



Message has 5 Replies:
  Re: Question for model RR gurus
 
(...) Well, it's about lunchtime here 8?) I think this stems mostly from non-Lego MRR, where things like DCC have given people a lot of neat ways to do things like that. I kinda like the idea of that stuff, too, and if I still had all my HO stuff I (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
  Re: Question for model RR gurus
 
(...) I tend to think of a couple of reasons- such as that the automation is to make it more than just model building (which can make fine, non animated displays...which, IMO, lack something most of the time...the sense of time from motion), it also (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
  Re: Question for model RR gurus
 
(...) I think there are a few reasons. One thing is that while in many places in real life, everything is manual, in other places it isn't. Mailine turnouts these days are probably remotely controlled (that's what an interlocking tower does for one (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
  Re: Question for model RR gurus
 
(...) Yep, "cool and fun" are two big reasons! <grin> Being a computer programmer at my 'day job', programming RCXs is something I enjoy. It's a challenge, trying to reduce a problem to its simplest solution so I can control it with an RCX (or two, (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
  Re: Question for model RR gurus
 
(...) <snip> Thanks for the responses, folks. It sounds like a lot of it is for the fun of the automation, but there's also some other good reasons that hadn't occurred to me. I'm really disconnected from traditional MRR, and the whole aspect of (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)

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