DCS playback recorded sessions anyone?

I'm also surprised at the lack of mention of this feature here on the forum but I think it's the coolest deal. You need to learn what you can do and how you can do it. Everyone's trains behave a little different but to replay what you just recorded, you must start the trains up (playing the recording back) at the same starting point. this is so the train(s) repeat what they just did.

What it boils down to is if you have many trains, it takes patience and time to figure what you can do. As an example, if you only have one train, running on the same loop, it may not matter where the start point is.....UNLESS you want the whistle to blow at a certain point or stop at the station at or real close to where it did in the recording, then starting at the same point is necessary.

I will hope to video something soon but the way I learned was to just play with the thing.

You'll find out what you can do and can't.

I use the DCS's record/playback feature whenever I have guests, and they work fine.

One of the sessions runs a passenger train and a freight train simultaneously for about 10 minutes (one lap +) and returns them to their starting position. The passenger train starts at the station, crosses over to one of the mains, then to the other main, and finally crosses over to the siding and back to the station. The freight train starts at the yard and returns to the yard. The trains return to their starting position within 1/2-inch after traveling 275 to 350 feet.

I also have two other sessions where four diesel engines shuffle places in the diesel facility. These involve four turnouts, and several direction changes of the engines. One session takes the engines from points A, B, C, and D to points A1, B1, C1, and D1. The other session reverses the first and takes the engines from A1, B1, C1 and D1 to A, B, C, and D. The engines return to their locations within 1/8-inch, but the length traveled by each engine is short - just between 10 and 20 feet.

The most difficult part of creating the recordings for me is remembering the bells. I remember the Fwd and Rev horns and grade crossings, but I don't always start and stop the bell as I had planned when the trains or engines run under 8 SMPH or so. 

I just wish the sessions could be saved elsewhere (computer) so there could be more than just three such sessions.

Alex

This is a great feature of DCS. I use it all the time. It is great when having guests so you can talk with them while the trains are running. I also will run a program when I'm alone so I can just sit back and enjoy the trains. I generally have two programs ready to run. The first will start and run a dozen or more trains and then stop them where they started. This is typically a 30 minute program. I have not run the continuous option available in the program. The second program involves running several trains in the yard area. Here the program loads and unloads various cars, picks up passengers and returns them and throws various switches in the process. The various accessories include the Bethlehem Steel Barrel loader and un loader, milk car, merchandise car, barrel loader car, log dump car, etc.  Here the starting position of each engine is important, but easy enough to do. One program I had would uncouple and couple cars. This is a wonderful feature. Try it and I'm sure you will want to use it.