The ESU ECoS system helps with these longer loco identifiers.
The system will remember some 16,000 locos and you can use
many alpha-numeric characters as the identifier. When you set
up the database (6), you can call the loco almost anything you
wish and can even load a photo of it. The system will associate
the NMRA compliant address you select with the loco name
you input. Calling up a loco is as simple as walking through the
database (possibly filtered by loco type) until you find the loco
name and photo you want. Then, with a button press, you have
it selected.
I use only NCE systems at my house, so I give all of my locos
long addresses. When I’m programming an address of 268 into
a loco, I give the system the address of 268 as I program it and
DCC Impulses Column - 6
remember that I had done that, since it wouldn’t respond to its
cab number exactly.
My recommendations
I don’t like to try to remember what addresses I’ve used for my
locos. The older I get, the harder it is to remember what I had
for dinner yesterday, let alone these technical details.
I use the entire cab number for my loco address. This works,
as I only model American railroads and all loco numbers have
between one and four digits.
For my friends who model railroads with more than four digits
in the cab number, I suggest that you use the same four digits
all the time – the first four or the last four, but the same four.
5: Programming the loco from figure 1 into an NCE Power-
Cab with a long address of 04.
6: ECoS system loco selection pane, calling up SP NW2
1315 on address DCC address 1315.
5
6
MRH-Feb 2014
