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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 (...) (23 years ago, 17-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) 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)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) 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)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) This part I grok. (...) And this part I don't. Why would this be personally disappointing? Do you think Mindstorms is a bad idea? (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) 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)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) 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)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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John Gerlach wrote in message ... (...) trolley (...) including (...) Aren't most trolleys double ended, so you can run them in either direction? What are you going to be using the turntable for? (Not criticising, just interested!) Dean Husby did a (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) If I may.... the reason is the pantograph pole-- if the trolley simply reverses, the pole would be pointed in the wrong direction. We toyed with ideas about flipping it back and forth, but nothing really seemed to work out. A double loop (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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I guess I am going to show my age here. In Los Angeles, in the forties, the trolleys had a pole on both ends and the conductor simply pulled one down and raised the other. He then sat in the seat at the other end of the car and went the opposite (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) Same here in Melbourne (Aus), up till a few years ago when the last of the "W" class trams (which had a pole either end) were retired from service. It's a bit hard to automate this on a Lego layout, but maybe not impossible. You have to worry (...) (23 years ago, 18-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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Ross Crawford wrote in message ... (...) the (...) "W" (...) bit (...) to (...) ensure (...) difficult if (...) Yes, this is how the ones I have seen work too. Is there actually going to be wire on the layout, though? That will be something to see! (...) (23 years ago, 19-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) That's what an interlocking tower USED to do. Nowadays they are getting rare. With CTC (Centralised Traffic Control) an entire division or more can be controlled from far far away. Umpteen thousand miles of the Union Pacific are all controlled (...) (23 years ago, 19-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) The trolley busses in Boston use a reversing loop also (the bus station in Harvard Square is interesting, it's underground, in two levels (arrivals and departures)). The green line uses reversing loops for the trolley portion (recall what I've (...) (23 years ago, 19-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) <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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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) So we are on the same track (no pun intended), In San Francisco there are Streetcars and Cable cars. The ones that climb the steep hills are cable cars. They move by gripping a cable under the street. The cable is moved by a large motor at the (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) If you're talking about F line, I rode it from one end to the other, changing cars several times by waiting for the next one at intermediate stops (1). Fun ride, it's worth doing if you're in SF and it's cheap too. It has reversing loops at (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) Ah, but some only had one pole. Now, for the bonus answer, how did they earth them? :) James P (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) I'm just not interested in DCC in a Lego environment. Maybe that's cos train building is still pretty young around here - we haven't had any Lego train shows at all, that I'm aware of (although it's been suggested a couple of times). When (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) What did I tell you, people! Some incredibly geeky and small thing in my answer would be incorrect and James would be the one to point it out. Do I know how to call them or what? :-) I have no idea how they grounded them... conductive rubber (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) OK, yes, all true. But let me put my Hop-Frog hat(tm) on for a bit. :-) So it's not your cup of tea, that's fine. But why be disappointed if someone else gets what they want? As long as it doesn't detract from the rest of the offerings, why (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) I'll have to admit that I didn't really care about LEGO going DCC for awhile, I figured it would be cool, but didn't care one way or the other. But once I played with Tom Cook's DCC trains at Brickfest I was sold on the idea! Now when I run my (...) (23 years ago, 20-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) Yep...but, I _did_ phrase it as a special bonus Question :) (...) Na, they used a skate in a trolley track!-also, Melborne, Aus. had problems when the road works crews tore out some old trolley track, and lights went out...it turned out, that (...) (23 years ago, 21-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Question for model RR gurus
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(...) I guess I'm just happier seeing Lego targetted at younger kids. Which, as you said earlier, directly contradicts my interest in Mindstorms. I guess I'm just a bloke full of contradictions 8?) However, I'd be interested to see how Lego makes a (...) (23 years ago, 21-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Trolley line automation
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(...) Hehe There is an old truism the MR freelancers trot out when the rivet counters give them a hard time... No matter how bizzare, if you dig hard enough, there is probably a prototype for it somewhere. So what city was this in? (I know, I (...) (23 years ago, 21-Aug-01, to lugnet.trains)
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