[Gary]

I have noted that Hornby decoders have a default CV29 direction of operation set as "Reversed" and Bachmann appear to have their direction of operation set as "Normal". Which is right for Britain given that the British (and Irish?) drive on the left hand side and everybody else drives on the right.

On the other hand I guess it doesn't matter as if you are operating a layout without a turntable you want locos to go from right to left to right again in the direction of the console arrow and they can be doing this when facing forwards or backwards. Being able to set up the direction of operation of the loco to match the direction of the arrow on the console without having to rewire is clearly a DCC advantage.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Makemineadouble]

Imperative where you take stock to a club or a friend layout.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Gary @ 6 Apr 2007, 20:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>given that the British (and Irish?) drive on the left hand side and everybody else drives on the right.

Happy modelling
Gary

The French (in some areas) & the Belgians drive on the left as well. (Probably many other countries as well - especially those whose railway systems were originally built by the Brirish).

Don't know if the arrows on the Elite point up & down or side to side, but the 3 command stations I use (FLM TC, Lenz LH100 & GM Prodigy) all point up & down - up being default forwards.

As long as operators know which way the command station they are using is "forwards" there should be now problems.

 

[Doug]

Does it matter what side of the lines you drive?

It's all about what direction the loco drives on the track it's on...

 

[Gary]

Thats interesting. The Elite arrows point left and right as per the review which to me seems logical. I hadn't thought of the up and down forward and reverse scenario. To take the topic off in whole new direction which is prefered?

I personally like arrows that are parallel to the track and point in the direction that a train goes when it passes in front of you. Arrows that point up and down to show forward and reverse remind me a lot of radio control and I could never get the hang of controlling something that goes left when you turn a lever right!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[dwb]

As I understand it, in DCC forwards is always forwards regardless of which direction the locomotive passes you on the track - left to right or right to left. So if you have a dog bone type layout with return loops at either end, deciding that the LEFT indicator on your control means the locomotive is heading left (and vice versa) will be fine for the first pass of the locomotive but on its return journey it will be wrong. For me it's simpler to decide that a right direction arrow means forwards simply because I read left to right. By breaking the connection between right arrow means driving left to right, I avoid the inevitable confusion when the locomotive gets turned around.

David

 

[Brian Considine]

Personally I don't see the logic in left/right arrows, although once you know which is meant to be forwards you should not get confused. Maybe it would have been better to have had "F" & "R" icons !

I can see Gary's point about about the direction of a loco just in front of you, but what about a MU/diesel/OHE going "back", a loco on the other side of a loop or on the other line of a double track ?

Be interesting to know which consoles use which method.