I don't think rc is necessarily the only future, given that conventional
control is still here 80 years + after the e-unit, it is unlikely that that
is going anywhere.Lionel and Mth I am sure would love to find a way to get
people to have to buy their cc rigs and not support conventional,but it
hasn't happened.
I think technologically some of the posters against rc,about the batteries
being weak,lasting only a couple of minutes,are mistaken.An rc airplane is
different than a train,weight is a big factor there,and gas engines have
the same problem as batteries,so they need to be light,so time of
operation is gonna be limited,a train doesn't have that,space is more the
consideration.
I hear the same thing in car circles about electric vehicles,sneering how
it will never replace Detroit iron and the like,how they are tree hugger
cars and so forth. The reality is that car companies have gotten
serious,and battery and fuel cell tech is moving forward,and in the not so
distant future gas powered cars are going to be in decline (in large part
because tech companies,other than the auto industry suits with their cozy
relationship to ExxonMobil and such,can't kill it). It is like those who
tell me about the good Ole days of cars you fixed with pliers and a
screwdriver,didn't mention how often you had to repair them or hunk them.
I don't think rc is going to take over per se, the hobby is too
diverse.Like with the move to scale equipment vs post war semiscale,it will
be a part I suspect.For rivet counters,It is more true to prototype having
the power source on board.
For the train companies,gets rid of command bases and power bricks and so
forth.
For users,no wiring, no special reverse loop wiring,no issues w dirt on the
rails or worries about signal strength in the rails,star wiring,and a
layout underside that looks like the flying spaghetti monster.
I think lc+ shows another reason,that there are people out there who would
like to do command control but don't want the complexity of legacy or dcs.
An rc system could offer for example something like an SD card you plug in
the engine that allows it to be controlled. Rather than having to program
in engine numbers and such,you have a card that is engine1,engine2,etc.
Many of us don't have huge collections or layouts,so for running we may
only use a small number of engines,and unlike lc+ it allows swapping the id
card.
I don't think rc will take over or necessarily become big,but it has
potential.From what I understand Lionel is surprised at the popularity of
lc, I think it has captured the audience that wants command control but
doesn't need (litetally) all the bells and whistles of current cc systems.
On Apr 5, 2015 9:51 AM, "O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum" <alerts@hoop.la>
wrote:
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