Just starting out and need some information…
I’m with the NMRA (you can stop the booing now) and the hotel where we are having our Regional Convention this year is willing to throw in some additional incentives if we do a Christmas Themed layout in their lobby for the holidays. We think 3 Rail with Department 56 would work well together. We would probably go with either Lionel Fasttrack or Atlas 3 Rail track. No turnouts or crossovers, just two loops of track.
We have to use what we have which means using an assortment of mostly traditional AC Lionel/MTH/K-Line Locomotives. The budget is not all that much and most will go into scenery.
The issue we need to decide now is how to control the thing. We know we can’t run trains for 12 hours a day for 5 weeks. We’ll need new Locos every few days.
It would have two isolated loops which would each have 1 train; no MU units. We need to run each loop independently. Ideally we would run Loop 1 for 20 minutes, then shut down, then 10 minutes later Loop 2 runs for 20 minutes then Loop 2 shuts down and 10 minutes later Loop 1 runs again and so on. We want to run it via a schedule on a computer to control the cycles and adjust on specific days as needed. We also need to control the AC to the lights in the Dept. 56 structures and the power to accessories. That isn’t that big a deal. If we can integrate with the train control, great, otherwise we can get a couple of home automation devices and run them on a separate program on the PC. The PC would also have 2 security cameras watching the layout 24/7.
Somewhere I read Lionel TMCC would work for this. Is this correct? If not, what is a more suitable alternative? Keep in mind, one priority is low cost. The other is we won’t have any Digital locos, so we just need to put power on each of the two loops and there aren’t any crossovers or turnouts connecting the loops. No powerblocks either, each loop is a powerblock by itself.
If Lionel TMCC would work, specifically what part numbers are needed? What software is recommended? Is there an API so we can write our own software?
Thanks in advance.
