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In the January and February 2005 issues of OGR, Rich Melvin discussed a new time line oriented control system which would work with TMCC, DCS and DCC. It was called Time Line Command from a company named Creative Trains Company.

It let you control the accessories on  your layout in a time sequence so you could script a simulation of a complete day of life on your layout with lights and accessories operating at different times during the simulated day.

I looked at the Wayback Machine web page and was able to find a March 2005 copy of the OGR webpage.  Here are the two columns by Rich Melvin about the system:

https://web.archive.org/web/20.../205Official_car.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20.../206Official_Car.pdf

Does anyone know what happened to this system? The technical details were available at the time but don't appear on the Wayback Machine's archived page.

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If I recall correctly, Creative Trains Company was formed by Neil Young to be the entity in which Legacy was developed (perhaps much like LionTech was formed by Neil Young to develop TMCC). Evidently, a decision was made, for whatever reason, not to go ahead with Time Line Command--although an intriguing concept--and we haven't seen "Creative Trains Company" for a long time.

Cheers!

Keith

Time Line Command - isn't that what Lionel calls Automatic Sequence Control? 

Based on the movement and speed of the locomotive, Sequence Control automatically plays the sound effects of an entire trip, from departure to destination, while you run your locomotive. Prototypical whistle signals, bell, and radio chatter are added automatically as you spin your throttle—no need to memorize a sequence of button presses
DaveP posted:

Time Line Command - isn't that what Lionel calls Automatic Sequence Control? 

Based on the movement and speed of the locomotive, Sequence Control automatically plays the sound effects of an entire trip, from departure to destination, while you run your locomotive. Prototypical whistle signals, bell, and radio chatter are added automatically as you spin your throttle—no need to memorize a sequence of button presses

Time Line Command was a broader concept, dealing mostly with controlling the environment of the layout based on time of day (in addition to trains).

Keith L posted:

If I recall correctly, Creative Trains Company was formed by Neil Young to be the entity in which Legacy was developed (perhaps much like LionTech was formed by Neil Young to develop TMCC). Evidently, a decision was made, for whatever reason, not to go ahead with Time Line Command--although an intriguing concept--and we haven't seen "Creative Trains Company" for a long time.

Cheers!

Keith

It would be very interesting to know more about their reasoning to dis-continue the project or what happened? Too complicated, cost, lack of interest, etc.? Sounds like a really neat idea and I would also like to know more about it all. That all happened before I got back in the hobby in 2011.

Seems like there have been a couple of layout articles in the magazines where folks have done something similar. I don't recall them detailing what they actually did or how they did it though. All custom I suppose? Layouts were very nice, possibly also professionally built?

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