Model Railroading > TCS UWT-50P Throttle

I was a bit eager to try out the TCS UWT-50P Wifi throttle I received a few days ago. I was surprised to find that hardly anyone had the throttle to sell, and there was no TCS throttles to be found on E-bay. I ended up buying mine direct from TCS, which worked well. It shipped the day after I bought it and was in my hand two days after that. This is one advanced throttle, with programmable buttons that you can even label. Using JMRI, you can even make the throttle buttons different for each locomotive selected. You can also make different labels for the buttons on the screen, or even label the locomotives. I could make a label for a locomotive like "SP Daylight 4449", or another like "Freedom Train 4449" if I had both locomotives.
Having been to many clubs and private layouts using Digitrax Wireless systems, loss of control and poor response to button inputs was a common issue all around. Having to hit the direction button multiple times just get the locomotive to switch directions was frustrating to say the least. Most people resorting to plugging in their throttles most of the time. I'm happy to say there wasn't even a hint of a control issue in 3 hours of running with the UWT-50P. The locomotives responded readily to each control input. That is such a change to my experience with the Digitrax wireless throttles.
I opted for the "P" version with the potentiometer and it's definitive start and stop points in the range of motion of the knob as apposed to the unlimited range of the Encoder version. But either version of the throttle will work well. The UWT-50P comes with two knobs. One so the thumb indent swings over the top in the movement range, the other swings around the bottom. The throttle readily connected to the Digitrax LNWI router. I only had to select it from the list of the Wifi networks and then saved that network. Couldn't be more easy. Selecting a locomotive was just as easy. Just press the loco button, enter the number and press the loco button again. Consisting is also much easier. The consisting is handled in the throttle, with the throttle handling the control of the locomotives in the consist. If you connect to JMRI using the Wi-Throttle feature, the throttle automatically downloads the list of locomotives from JMRI so you only have to scroll through the list and select the locomotive. You can also use JMRI to setup some highly customizable features in the throttle.
The three-way thumbs switches on the sides of the throttle is something new, and very useful. On each switch you can press in, forward or backward. If you like manual notching, these would be perfect for that. And since they are programmable, you can set them up to control any feature.
I did run into a issue while trying to consist a 6-unit consist. The first few units went fine, but then trying to add more units the throttle was failing to receive a response from the Digitrax system. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was and it will require some more investigating. I did use my Digitrax throttle to sort it out, and found the locomotives already MU'ed together in the Digitrax system. Probably the reason for the issues, but there was still something odd about what happened.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this purchase, and it will make operating on the club's Digitrax system much less frustrating.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/22 01:59 by funnelfan.

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Thank you for posting your review.  Have been watching the release of these throttles and looking into testing them at the local club.

Ted Ferkenhoff
Flagstaff, AZ

Here is another discussion on how well the TCS throttles are. I think they are great throttles.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,5503368,5503761#msg-5503761

I'm glad the command station from TCS is out. Now have to decide to get one or not and plug it into my loconet (digitax) setup. Glad there is another player in the DCC space. 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

Thanks for the wright up Ted.

I enjoyed the write-up as well!  Last year TCS offered a combo deal on the UWT100 and UWT50 at a cost savings of $100 off both so I ordered the combo deal  I ordered the UWT50 as the potentiometer version.

I wonder what the LT50 throttle will be. Anyone heard anything about it?

I believe the LT-50 is the wired version of the UWT-50. 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

mcdeo Wrote:
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> I believe the LT-50 is the wired version of the
> UWT-50. 

Actually the LT-50 is a competitor to the NCE power cab starter system  The LT-50 is a wired throttle/command station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOKjhMsIIM4

Cheers,
Jim