Wayne, I'm still trying to figure this all out. The downside of DCC is that it allows one person to operate more than one train at a time? And it's the "system" that is running the other trains? I had always thought that the "other" trains were being run by those LGM's in the cabs.
r
Let's say you have a continuous mainline, so trains can go around and around without any "supervision". Let's say you also have a DCC system that right now you only have one throttle for - like a Digitrax Zephyr with one built-in throttle control. You could take control of locomotive 300 and couple it to the head of a train and start the train running at 30 scale mph along the mainline. You could then take control of locomotive 200 and use that to work in the yards, or run a second train with etc. All the time you're controlling 200, engine 300 and it's train is still going around the mainline at 30 smph. If you have a double track mainline, you could set up engine 200 to run a second train on the other main going 40 smph, then call up engine 100 and do some operating with that while 300 and 200 continue to run on the mainline.
Until you take control of 300 and 200 and stop them, or shut down your system, they'll keep running. Of course if you take engine 100 onto the same mainline as no 300, you have to be aware of where no 300 is, since if engine 100 gets in the way, 300 and it's train will plow right into it!!
In DC, you could set up trains to run independently on the mainline, but it would take a lot of careful use of individual blocks to allow engine 100 to go out on the mainline. If say engine 100 is in a DC block and is stopped, any other engine that runs into that block will stop. In DCC, the other train will keep going so 100 better be in the clear!! :twisted: