Model Railroading > Model Railroading on TechTV

I was flipping around the TV channels a few minutes ago and came across images of a fairly well detailed Rio Grande steam era narrow guage layout on TechTV. The show was TechLive (starts at 1pm on the west coast) and they said they would explain the technology behind model railroading on tomorrow\'s show. They made references to DCC, Soundchips, and miniture video cameras. Sounds like it could be intresting.
It\'s amazing how far model railroading has come in the last ten years. Although I realize that much of the current technology was pioneered in the 1980\'s, it really didn\'t gain the wide acceptance until just the last seven years. I believe locomotives with factory installed sound is just around the corner, and in about another 15 years they might even factory install miniture video cameras based on current CCD video camera technology. How cool would that be, to have a controller with a small color LCD screen at the top were you can view the tracks from inside the cab? Technology is rapidly moving in that direction.

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@icehouse.net

I found more on the show. Apperantly it will be on at 8:30 and 11:30 EST tonight and 2:30 EST tomorrow. I got the railroad wrong, it was a model of the Yosemite Valley Railroad.

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3391843,00.html

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@icehouse.net

Locomotives with factory sound aren\'t \'just around the corner\'...they\'re here.

Broadway Limited\'s NYC J1e Hudson (scheduled to be released sometime this summer) includes factory-installed DCC and sound.

http://www.broadway-limited.com

Almost went into full panic that I had missed it.

Checked the TV at 8:34 and TiVo was already recording it as a suggestion! Good TiVo....