Neat throttle

[ednadolski]

I'd love to try that out with my Proto:48 stuff.   Would go great with working cut levers and manually-thrown switch stands.

It seems like a mindset change for some users.   Real locomotives don't come with an 'emergency switch' that magically cancels out physical inertia.

(Next up: working air brakes for freight cars )

Ed

Edit: it does require (demand, really) a loco with very good low-speed performance.

[jagged ben]

Funny, the throttle pictured is an attempt to replicate the prototype, for example the notches in the throttle.

But many of the comments are anti-prototype, momentum, the speed control, etc.

Seems that if you wanted a prototype throttle, you would like to run like the prototype

(emergency stop excepted)

Greg

And yet, models don't run like the prototype.  They don't have the same inertia.  And, for example, dynamic breaking isn't a real thing on the model, it's something that you simulate with sound.   So in trying to make a model behave realistically with a prototypical looking throttle you are necessarily simulating a bunch of the physics with momentum settings and so on.

It strikes me that this product may be perfect for flat layouts but if you have any grades it would lose a lot of verisimilitude.  That is, unless there's some complicated system for telling the throttle what the grade is and changing the relationship of speed to throttle notch accordingly.  I was actually thinking about this the other day and thinking that if the user had a way of telling the throttle what the grade is, it could all be made to work.  I don't see that here though, unless I didn't look close enough.

If you don't have a way of telling the throttle the grade, you easily end up with bad simulation and possibly really bad control of your train such that a professional 1:1 engineer using the throttle gets unrealistic and hopefully not crashing to the floor results.

[peteski]

One of the big problems trying to run models like prototype is the compressed distance on our layouts. We just don't have the distance to slow down or speed up as gradually as the 1:1 trains do.

[Greg Elmassian]

I agree not everything scales the same, although I also run G scale, and you can run prototype weights, and in Z scale we do indeed have a switchyard a mile long... so it's not like it's not possible, but scaled to a degree.

But no momentum is not required also.

But I was more focused on the notches, exactly how a real diesel works, and for that matter how about brakes that work the same way. Just funny that a throttle the evokes the real thing is kind of not acceptable to many functionally, in the exact areas that differentiate it from a knob and a reversing button.

Greg

[wcfn100]

That looks incredibly interesting to me personally, and assuming it plays nice with Digitrax, I'd be in for one without much hesitation. Given that the linked blog post is over a year old (March 2016) and I can't find any newer reference to the throttle, including on Iowa Scaled Engineering's website, this whole debate might be academic.

There's 57 pages of newer posts and the video was just published a few days ago.



Jason

[eric220]

Yeah, I just got to those, so I retract my previous comment.

Now that I'm fully caught up, I am once again very excited for this throttle! I'll apparently have to wait until they get the WiThrottle interface working, but I'm solidly in the "shut up and take my money" camp. Add a little of this:



And I'm gonna need BASIC to describe my excitement!

[sirenwerks]

I just like the idea of slide action levers versus knobs. Knobs just don't seem right. Even though I would prefer a throttle with actual levers or slides, a cell phone GUI with slides would be an improvement over physical knobs IMO. Knobs are for radios.

[peteski]

I just like the idea of slide action levers versus knobs. Knobs just don't seem right. Even though I would prefer a throttle with actual levers or slides, a cell phone GUI with slides would be an improvement over physical knobs IMO. Knobs are for radios.

No knobs?  How about a steering wheel in a loco's cab?  It is used as a throttle and it rotates like a knob.   

[learmoia]

No knobs?  How about a steering wheel in a loco's cab?  It is used as a throttle and it rotates like a knob.   

I remember when I grew up I had a kids book related to trains and one of the illustrations had a 'steering wheel' in the cab.. and at the time I was was smart enough to know that was a mistake.. it wasn't until years later... that this was a real thing in other countries..

And it wasn't until I started working for the railroad that I realized the significance of this childhood illustration..


~Ian

[jpwisc]

What is wrong with the emergency stop the throttle has on it? It's right there in plain sight. Just dump the brake lever into the emergency position. Prototypical for many control stands. The lever or button many people associate with the Emergency Dump is the one located in front of the conductor, not the one he engineer uses.

Just like any throttle, the operator needs to familiarize themselves with it before operation. This throttle looks simpler to me than a DT400.

[learmoia]

What is wrong with the emergency stop the throttle has on it? It's right there in plain sight. Just dump the brake lever into the emergency position. Prototypical for many control stands. The lever or button many people associate with the Emergency Dump is the one located in front of the conductor, not the one he engineer uses.

Just like any throttle, the operator needs to familiarize themselves with it before operation. This throttle looks simpler to me than a DT400.

^^^ THIS ^^^
~Ian

[milw156]

Looking forward to visiting with them at St. Louis. Hope they let us try it out on the Modutrak layout!
Rick

[jagged ben]

And it wasn't until I started working for the railroad that I realized the significance of this childhood illustration..


~Ian

Gosh, I remember that, but without context I don't really get it.  What book was that?

[Missaberoad]

Gosh, I remember that, but without context I don't really get it.  What book was that?

Tootle the train 

[Carolina Northern]

I remember that book. I was train crazy even at that age.
My step father worked for the NYO&W at that time. When they went under he went to the NYC.

Don