Do you have more trains? With a digital controller, you'll be fine. The Bachmann Digital Controller is responsible to take the job! You are not familiar with Bachmann Bachmann controller or digital? Welcome to Century 21. Now let me see if I'm just friends. Go ahead ask me what's on your mind!
What is a digital controller Bachmann?
It 'just a fancy remote control that lets you run more than one locomotive at a time, a big problem. It 'easy tolooks like your run of the mill sort of boxy gizmo, kind of like a smallish DVR maybe.
Are they easy to get and operate?
Well if you are familiar with Bachmann, you know that they have cool beginner kits. Anyway, these kits always include a Bachmann Digital Controller. Usually they will also include a couple of different trains and some cars for them to pull. All packaged right up in one convenient bundle. It's a pretty good deal. They don't stiff you on the bill either. If I were just starting out and wanted an HO scale model locomotive I would be all over that.
Are Bachmann locomotives good?
Ask almost any model training fan who got started in the last two decades what set he or she bought to get started and you'll always get the same answer: a "Bachmann starter Kit". Nobody puts together a better straight from the box, ready on the first day, starter kit than Bachmann. Bachmann is excellent at responding to consumer needs and so you will have a great deal of choice as to the type of train that you want and the kind of kit. Put simply, Bachmann locomotives rock for beginners!
Is Bachmann a well known model train maker?
The Bachmann company is just about as old as locomotives themselves, having been created by two families, the Carlisle's and the Bachmann's. Bachmann's an American company, founded in Philadelphia, though it has since transplanted its operations to Beijing around the turn of the millennium. Although they were in existence long before relative new comers like Lionel and American Flyer, Bachmann didn't inject themselves into the model locomotive making business until after these other 20th century businesses were the well established industry leaders. Bachmann's strategy has greatly been shaped by its attempt to find a niche outside of the sphere of influence of what was then the main player in model trains, Lionel train (now Lionel LLC). Just as people were trying to find a simpler, less space consuming and less expensive alternative to Lionel's O gauge locomotives, there was Bachmann with its easy to set up starter Kits. By tapping into the customers that Lionel out priced Bachmann established themselves as the new top dogs in the model train making world. Bachmann has always been ahead of the game in capitalizing on industry fads so with the rise of the computer age, Bachmann followed Hornsby trains in introducing digital technology into the training world and so the Bachmann Digital Controller was introduced.
Can you give me a technical explanation of how the controller works?
Well to comprehend it you first have to understand the problem that it solved. Back in the day before controllers, it used to be that trains moved because the track was electrified. So, you hit the power and every locomotive on the track would move. If you wanted to operate more than one locomotive and not have them moving at the same time, you needed dual sources of power and two separate tracks. This was fine if you were only going to control say two trains, but if you added more trains than this, all the separate wiring and devices started to really make a mess. The computer age allowed Bachmann to use chip technology to get around this problem. These microchips make it so that the individual trains only responds when commanded. Since the train is in control and not the track, you can have as many locomotives on the same track as you want. The controller tells them when to go. It was an easy computer age solution to an old hardware puzzle. That clear things up?
If I collect classic locomotives am I just out of luck? Do you just have to do it the old fashioned way?
No. Lots of model train hobbyists install the tiny processor into their older model trains. I've never done it myself, but I'm informed by more experienced hobbyists that it's not as hard as it sounds. I personally avoid anything involving soldering, but as you know I'm all thumbs. It's not quite as straight forward as knowing the difference between a Phillips head and flat head, but it's not brain surgery either.
Anyway, that's what I can tell you about the Bachmann Digital Controller. Did that answer your question? Do you think you could now set me straight on this screw driver thing?
