More Fun with DCC

Did you know that when you are programming a Digitrax decoder and it asks you what you want your minimum, maximum and middle voltages to be, they don't really mean voltages?

It's true!

So, with the "malfunctioning" DCC decoder once again installed in the Mikado, and properly programmed, the Path Valley Railroad ran one day totally digital (and totally Model Power powered). The Lackawanna Pacific pulled the passenger train while the Mikado handled the freight duties.

In the process I've found that my little layout just really isn't set up to run two trains simultaneously...but then again, that's not the way it was designed in the first place. It was designed as a switching layout with the possibility of roundy-round train running, and it fills those roles admirably.

If I wanted to run two simultaneously I'd really need to put in a dedicated mainline and turn the existing main into the switching siding, that way I'd be able to orbit the passenger train while I was switching the freight. Unfortunately I just don't have that kind of real estate to play with.

Now I just have to fiddle with the SD9 until I can get it to be a good locomotive on DC again, and then I'll try once more to put a decoder in it. I don't know why I'm so hell-bent on putting DCC into that locomotive, but it's become a quest of sorts.

I'm also going to put a decoder into the K4, I just haven't decided if I'm going to wait for the new motor and gear to get here before I do it.